20 Jan: A peaceful night running with twin headsails in a pleasant 13-18 knts of wind. The Russians disappear to stern and off the AIS. Phew! We have safely negotiated our way passed dangerous Russian mafia!
Lying in the spinnaker looking to the stars, the twin head sails, with their leeches swaying in the wind, look like a giant white manta ray swimming in the starry sky. Just before sunrise, 4 visible planets in a line – Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. Glen thinks even Jupiter’s moons are visible too. Pluto is also there, next to Mercury, but not visible… even to Glen imagination 🙂
Up till now, watching our dot move on the Atlantic chart, between the Canaries and Caribbean, was akin to watching-paint-dry. But now that we are closing on Barbados, the island has a real shape on the chart plotter. We will soon need to decide if we plot our course to round to the north or south for us to reach the peaceful lee shore on its west side.
Generator was on for an hour this morning as usual, but this time one of the 2 chargers has put itself in “float” mode and won’t charge. Why is it that yacht electrics work great then all of a sudden throw a curve-ball at you? It does seem each device takes a turn to press on the captain’s nerve ends! Glen does a Houdini act into the electric room to reset it. Phew, all good again. What will it be next?
Wind seems perfect for another try with the spinnaker. This time alone with no other sails out. Wow! Sheeted off the end of the boom it fills perfectly 10deg off dead downwind, and CB roars off at 7 knots in 12-13 true wind. Trouble is: the mast head wind indicator is now going backwards – must be a vortex off the spinnaker head, and there is a lot of chaffing in various places.
Chaffing of sheets and halyards seems to be the big problem with long distance sailing. After a couple of hours of great sailing the tack line is almost chaffed through as the block is not swiveling as it should. So it’s down with the spinnaker again. But without any other sails up to collapse the spinnaker behind, it takes a monumental effort to get the snuffler tube down over the spinnaker. Finally done and Glen is exhausted, again in a pile of white spinnaker on the foredeck. He declares never again is that spinnaker going up! And to ensure that, he clears the decks of all the spinnaker lines, which makes the boat look less like a spaghetti jungle!
Today we see our first ship: a tanker bound for Lome in West Aftrica passed within 3 miles. So we are not alone out here. Another hot day of sun bathing and reading by the girls, while Glen cools off inside trying to edit some videos, task which gets him a bit nauseous. In the evening it’s movie time in the cockpit as CB thunders along at 7-8kts under the usual starry sky.