Make and Mend

• Sept 12
• Day 13
• Noon Position: N46 51 3 W146 39 1
• Course/Speed: WxN 5
• Wind: W 10
• Bar: 1019
• Sail: #2 genoa and main full; close reaching
• Noon miles: 125
• Total Miles: 1548
• Average Miles/Day: 128

Sweet sailing overnight. Mo gently heaved on a diminutive swell, rocking me lightly in my bunk. We both were able to sleep most of our dark time watches…for a change. No great speed was made as wind shifted one way and then the other, creating on the chart plotter a lazy S of a course made good, but such things cannot be helped.

As we work north, one notable change is the temperature; it is finally getting cooler. Cabin temps are still steady (65 to 70 degrees) because there are two adults warming its tiny space with their body heat, and one of them is doing a ton of cooking. But on deck I now opt for a woolly hat and long sleeve fleece. Water temp tells the story: 61 degrees at noon today, down from its high of 74 degrees back at 37N. 

Yes, I am now fully aware that you are getting most of your domestic backstory from Harmon’s blog, so I will continue with the nuts and bolts.

Given the light winds and steadier deck, today was designated make and mend, partly because things needed mending and partly in prep for some heavy weather three days hence.

The short list:

-The Watt and Sea has been reinstalled on to its launch bracket and is back in service, a job made very much easier with two, one to hold the unit, the other to hang his body over the stern to guide it into place. Moreover, its pintle has been locked properly. This requires fitting a small pin into a hole at the bottom of the pintle—simple enough if one could see the hole, which also has the good sense to be just out of reach and sometimes underwater. Done by feel after many tries but done. God save us if it needs pulling in a hurry.

-We have refreshed Monte’s tiller lines so as to reduce to zero the possibility that chafe should cause failure in upcoming weather.

-Harmon wrapped the diesel heater vents in coax tape. These can leak a bit in seeking seas.

-I transferred Gerry can fuel to the main tanks, getting weight out of the bow. We also pumped the anchor locker dry. With so much water coming over the bow this passage, they are wetter than usual (the latches leak a bit, as does the windlass). The locker lid is now locked shut. 

-The vice in the pilot house has been refastened. We tend to use it as the horn of a saddle—a thing to grab in passing, which has loosened it over time. 

In the morning Harmon made sweet corn bread; in the evening, a pasta with beef and pees. 

Now 15 knots dead on the beam and Mo makes a happy 7 knots WNW.