Day 2
Happy 4th of July. My night shift started at 9 but Ben stayed out with me to watch all the fireworks from the boat to the shore. We are about 20-25 miles out and we can't see land during the day but at night we watched many fireworks all along the coast. What a nice evening. My shift started with strong winds , well 20 knots the boat loves 20 but I'd rather not when we are in danger of accidental jibs that is where the wind is behind us and the boom is all the way off to one side then the wind barely catches it and slams it against the other side. Much damage to the boom can be done by that. I have a jack line tonight and a preventer line to catch the boom if it wants to move. The first hour I steered cuz it was too crazy windy and wild for me to set the cap horn needless to say I'm beat and I have two more hours to go. So blogging keeps me up. I bet Anne from work would like me to write some scripts... all in good time.
Random, ya know I thought I got the bearing thing right and then I've been trying my theories and it's not 100% so forget that. I'll have to look in the manual. Ha ha manuals are jokes these days cuz everything is online except me out here wanting to know a bit more about our garmin chartplotter
More random comments (if anyone reads all if these blogs I'll be amazed due to the rambling of these trying to keep me awake. well except my sister she has to read them all cuz she is blood related ha ha.) it's like 70 some degrees. I wish I knew so I could tell you that in the wind I'm cold. Who would have thought going from 100 degrees to 70 in the wind would be cold. I have a shirt, sweatshirt, small spring jacket and my big rain coat for wind resistants. Oh scarf too.
Lila is thinking... ok folks when can we go back to the boatyard? She is getting to be daring now that we had some bio fosferecsene sights in the water. Just tonight the ripples sparkled ! Cool! And lila thinks she should be catching the light. I say, "walk away from the light".
Let's see ... tonight to keep me awake also is food. I have cheese, salami, and crackers. I try to eat slow. Last night I had half a chocolate bar but by bed time I had a little tummy ache from it. Like the feeling you get when you eat too much sweets. Well today went fast each time on my off two hour day shift i tried to nap and didn't feel rested ever. Hurry up time piece! There are no big boats in sight.
Finally I slept 3.5 hours at a hard sleep! When 5am rang I was so fast a sleep that when I got up I walked like a drunkin' sailor! It took a very long hour to get me to be "awake"! I might have shut my eyes a few times. It was a calm morning. Winds 5-8 perfect angle to the wind on a beam. ( the wind comes from the side. It is the nicest point of sail. For my sister this would be your type of sailing. The boat is calm pretty flat and quiet, all is good) I'm struggling to get awake and about 6:30 here comes a sailbaot going to pass me. What? Not that I am competitive but more embarrassed I have not changed my sailing configs. So I put down the staysail and pull out the big jib or genoa. Poof now I'm cruising too. Last night we only had out the main at 20 knots it's a fast ride and you get to wrestle the wheel. I could have reefer but man is that a pain and something I don't do alone or at night unless I have to and then I do it before I have to. The weather was supposed to be 15-20 so it all seemed good. Then the winds died down for ben so he put up the staysail and now I took that down and let out the jib. 7-9 knot winds on a beam produce 4.5-5.5 knot speed. Pretty good. So now I'm awake and feel like I'm in a rhythm. Ya know when you first drive a car there are so manythings to think about. That is me after all it is only my four day sailing yet this year. Just getting used to her. I'm going to let Ben sleep in longer so he can have on stretch of longer sleep. So I'm going to crochet or something fun while the sailing is so peaceful! Oh and make coffee!
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