Saturday, January 28, 2012

1/28/12

Noon Position 33 29.8'S, 075 17'W, SOG 3.8, COG 207, Day's Run 95nm.
Things are going much better today - My cold seems to be dissipating, my
toe doesn't hurt, and I haven't puked since yesterday morning! In fact,
any and all nausea seems to have gone away. I think it was largely due
to not having eaten much for 24 hours on top of being in the lazarette,
topped off by the cold. Today the weather is shining, and we're sailing
SW in a light westerly, which is far more pleasant than the strong
Southerly breeze we could be facing. I anticipate some calms ahead as
we get back into the high pressure, but it makes for a nice ride at the
moment. It gave myself another haircut today and the new inverter
didn't even cough, which was wonderful, although I seem to have a
tendency to give myself unfortunate haircuts - this time the entire back
of my head is longer than the rest, sort of a buzz-mullet, if such a
thing exists. Fortunately I can only see the back of my head with some
effort, so the crew of Odyssey will not be offended by the sight. I've
really been appreciating the work that we did on Odyssey in Higuerrillas
- the new hard dodger is very nice, and rebedding all the cabin top
hardware and re-sealing the forward hatch have both made significant
improvements for the drier in my life, and the mast is rock solid with a
new spar-tite collar and set screws installed this time. I switched to
the small main (a cut-down Catalina 38 sail) in Chile, and while the
canvas and stitching are both in good shape, the sail shape leaves quite
a bit to be desired. My real mainsail was a bit too full, but at least
it had a shape - this sail seems to consist mostly of wrinkles, but I
can deal with that until I start heading downwind, where the deeper
third reef in this main will make my life a lot happier. I now just
need to watch the weather and pick a good window to swap back down to my
small jib before hitting anything unpleasant and we'll be set.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update, Eric. Would you please talk
    about some of your safety methods (jack line, etc.)?
    I am so curious about the way you manage day to
    day -- cooking, sleeping, etc.
    Best,
    sandy

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  2. God speed Eric and hoping all continues to go as smoothly as you can expect. Glad to hear things have improved since your first night out of Chile!

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  3. Have you read "1632" by Eric Flint? It is one of those available in the Baen Free Library. It is the first story I read in e-book format. I wish I had had a Kindle when I was cruising. It was always a priority to dingy over to other cruisers looking for books to swap. My entertainment library shelf space was only 13 paper books wide aboard Broad Reacher, my Freedom 28
    Cat Ketch.

    ReplyDelete