Keeping the crew working
Our un-seasick crew have been kept working hard even though we have now done about a third of our passage to Galapagos. The winds are fickle and feeble but we have still made good progress under sail and tried to keep the motoring for when the wind dies completely.
There is always an abundance of great food emerging from the hot and sweaty galley. Shimshal’s large and shaded cockpit is the place we spend most of our day eating, drinking, reading, audio-booking and undertaking various boat projects. Every day brings a new project.
Today’s project was the commissioning of our Hydrovane - a cunning device forged out of bronze, stainless steel and aluminium that turns wind power into steering power taking the strain off our electrically driven auto-helms. We had completed the fitting of our Hydrovane on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal but never had the chance to try it out. Somewhat unexpectedly we fitted the vane, pulled the pin, put it in gear and away we went. She steered a perfect course and kept Shimshal ghosting along at 5.5 knots in light airs. Sadly, as our confidence grew, she showed her other side and demonstrated her need for perfect sail trim, perseverance and patience. By the time we reach Tahiti we will all be Hydrovane experts!
More leather work was required to reinforce our sheets as they run through the jaws of our spinnaker poles so out came the Dyneema thread, the chaps leather and Sally’s exemplary sewing skills.
I’ve been fiddling around removing bits of legacy kit that have now been made redundant by the excellent installation of new wind instruments. Our data network is now working perfectly on all the monitors and the new radar scanner is giving clear images from its gimballed mount half way up the mast.
Tim and Heather are enduring a crash course in offshore sailing and are standing their own watches both day and night.
Talking of crashes we have, inadvertently, nudged a few turtles. Amazing creatures that we glimpse at the last moment when they wave a flipper as they pass.
Plans are afoot for Equatorial celebrations but they are still a few days away!
Simon
Reinforcing the sheets
Tim getting to grips with hand steering in light airs
Our newly commissioned Hydrovane
