Friday Feb 20,09 Day 13
Last night the wind picked up to Force 5 gusting to 6 with a big swell from the nE.
Sometime during the night they took in the t’gallants so we are now sailing along under courses and
topsails only. We re making a good 6 knots though rolling quite a bit.
The sky is fairly clear with the Sun shining down on the massive waves. The ranks of white caps spreading
out to the horizon are an intense white against the dark blue of the sea.
Gary and I finally got our calculations done this afternoon for the star sights we took yesterday. I am very
encouraged, for the first time I actually got a fix between two sights! My fix is off by 30 miles or so, which
is not very good, but at least I got one.
This afternoon the 12-4 watch had to send down the Fore Upper Topsail as it had torn it’s leech out. They
had the spare bent on and drawing within an hour! Apparently long passages like this with variable
conditions is most likely to be when sails are going to fail. That is why, traditionally, Cape Horners sent
down their heavy sails and sent up older lighter ones as they got into these latitudes so that the heavy
weather sails didn’t suffer in the Sun and variable conditions around the Equator.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
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