March 29, 2014
Logbook – March 29, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0510 SB engine on 1600 rpm
- 0752 SB engine off
- 0910 genniker only
- Min TWS 4.7 kts E
- Max TWS 11.2 kts E
Daily Notes
- Day 19
- No school – baked bread and cookies
- Alex & D drop the main
No photos
Email from family and friends dated March 29, 2014
Subject: PPJ Day 19
We had decent wind yesterday and most of the night, but around 3am it died and never came back today. We ran the engine for a couple hours in the wee hours of the morning since we would have had to run the generator anyway to charge the batteries. But once the sun came up I could no longer justify it, so I shut it down. Then we were going a blistering 3 kts (half of that due to the current in our favor) so Alex and I dropped the main sail since it wasn’t helping and was only flogging. Yes, that’s right, Alex and I dropped the main without Tim. I know it’s been over a year already, but there are some (OK, most) sail changes that I just don’t do alone. I contemplated waking Tim up, but after I thought it through, I figured Alex and I could do it. And it really wasn’t one of my most stellar parenting moments. A little less yelling and a little more coaching would have gone over a lot better. I hadn’t already coached him on the new main halyard, which has A LOT more friction than the old one and twists and knots up much more easily. I’ve told Tim a few times that it concerns me if we ever need to get the main down quickly in deteriorating weather, but I digress. Anyway, Alex had a hard time paying out the halyard. And I was not mother of the year today. Perhaps a bit out of guilt, or laziness, or both, I let the boys talk me into no school today. To celebrate getting out of the counter-current… yeah, that’s it. So, we baked bread and chocolate chip cookies and pretty much did nothing else all day.
Just another day at sea.
P.S. Perhaps I should provide a little more detail. When we drop the main, usually I am on the halyard and Tim is on the hard bimini top guiding the sail down into the stackpack. So, today, Alex was me and I was Tim. Yes, I had my harness on, and yes I was clipped on, but while Alex was struggling to pay out the halyard I was getting knocked around by the boom and trying to pull the sail down. Fun times.
—–
At 3/30/2014 6:08 AM (utc) our position was 04°04.18’S 131°48.59’W
Gresham Family Exodus 