Wednesday, April 18, 2007

April 18, 2007 - On passage

Today, prompted by light winds and no small amount of boredom, we finally figured out how to rig and use the whisker pole that we installed on the front of the mast during our refit. I am continually impressed by how well Sten can puzzle things out; our minds work so differently. So now, in addition to our regular complement of running rigging and the jerry-rigged boom vang and a preventer on the boom, we have running from the tip of the pole, outside the lifelines to a cleat midship or all the way aft, a foreguy, afterguy, and the active jib sheet. The nice thing about this pole setup is that it is supported and immobilized by all of these lines and a spinnaker halyard holding it aloft. So we can leave it in place should we need to furl or jibe the jib. The boat is starting to look like it is trapped in a spider web of lines. But the more comfortable motion and improved speed of being able to run dead down wind with the jib poled out wing on wing is worth the chaos on deck.


It is a beautiful day, which we've passed, like the last few, by reading, watching for ships, and taking cat naps. The exhaustion of the first few night watches has eased as our bodies have started to adjust to their new sleep schedules. The wind is toying with us now, swinging around, backing and filling with indifference to our sail set, as it prepares to die out. As the wind has petered out the swell has died down too, so if we do need to turn on the main engine tonight, hopefully we won't be rolling too much.

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