(Sailing Day 3 to 5) Good morning, world! I slept a solid six hours without waking up. At 1:30 AM, we changed the watch schedule. The cats got their first treats of the day; they usually get three treats daily while at sea. They don’t like the engine’s noise, but we’ve been running it for two days straight. The weather forecast predicts another 30 hours of motoring. Despite the doldrum motoring, I feel refreshed and enjoyed the bright stars, Venus and Sirius, early this morning.
On the third day, a seagull was trying to find a rest spot on the boat rail at sunset. I assumed the sea was too rough for it to rest on the water. The boat was rolling a lot. I watched the bird’s effort and wished it would find a spot on the rail. After about 20 tries, it finally found a spot, though it was still having trouble holding on. The next morning after sunrise, I was surprised the bird was still there.
We had an autopilot issue again. We had to empty the storage areas to access the back end of the boat and identify the problem. Luckily, it was just a jammed RAM (Rudder Angle Measurement). We took out a spare RAM from under my bed and replaced it.
On the fourth day, we started motoring. We set up a light sail, “Code 0,” but the wind wasn’t enough. We gave up sailing and planned to motor for more days. The positive side was that the sea was calm. John refilled the diesel fuel and hoped for enough wind as early as possible. Walking on the deck, we found a section of the front rail completely covered in dried bird poop. I brought a bucket of water and cleaned it with a paper towel.
The other day, the topping lift line disconnected from the top of the mast. This line helps control the boom’s distance above the dodger. John temporarily replaced it with a “Spare Main Line.” We were also having a hard time bringing down the mainsail. It turned out that John’s creative idea of adding a line from the top of the mainsail (so he could reach it when the top portion was difficult to lower) got tangled with the lazy jack roller on the mast. John raised me up the mast, and I untied the line. We felt lucky that it was resolved by raising me only 10 feet, not all the way up to the roller.
We eat simple food during the passage. I think cooking can be dangerous while sailing. Since we were motoring on a somewhat calm sea, I cooked a rice noodle dish with leftover ground beef and my specialty sauce. I’ve stopped buying uncooked meat for long passages. Meat, vegetables, and fruits need to be consumed before arrival.
I changed the time. Vanuatu is one hour ahead of Bundaberg time. It’s only 6 AM, but I’m hungry. I’m thinking of having toasted crumpets (a small griddle bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast) with butter and Vegemite (Australian spread made from leftover brewer’s yeast extract, salt, and various vegetable extracts). I’ve been trying to get into it since I like fermented food, but John doesn’t care much for it. He didn’t even know it was spread on the bread last time I gave him a piece of crumpet.
