Day 119, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 16-Three Sails, Two Sails
Date: Sunday, February 20, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Totally Overcast with Continual Squalls; NE 9-15
Air Temperature: 81 degrees F
Latitude: 04 05.247 N
Longitude: 031 53..972 W
Miles Traveled: 2047.38
Miles to Go: 1854
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)

We have been enjoying sailing with all three sails out during the day, but just after furling the staysail for the night last evening, the attachment holding the inner forestay to the chainplate broke. We put on our harnesses and went to the foredeck to secure the swinging staysail. Thankfully the sail was furled because it is had been out full it would have been flogging and very difficult to get under control. We went back to the foredeck this afternoon and tried to give it a more permanent fix, but we don’t have the right toggle and the fix remains temporary. We will only use the staysail in light air and only then if absolutely necessary. So we are now down to two sails again. This problem started on our way to Madagascar when the staysail attachment at the top came loose. When we got to Madagascar the fix at the top required shortening the staysail a bit, so we had to add a piece at the base. That added piece is what broke, so we will head to a rigger as soon as we arrive in Grenada. Both of our aft lower stays are now frayed at the top, so we’ll have all the rigging checked and replace what is necessary. There is supposed to be a really good rigger in Prickly Bay, our Grenadan destination, and we’ll certainly put him to work right away.

The weather turned yucky again early last night and stayed that way through the night and all day today-one squall after another, some with rain, some just with increased winds and a change in wind direction.. It seems we get a day or two with a little sun and then it disappears again for days at a time. We have had less sunshine on this passage from South Africa than anytime we can remember. But gray day after gray day, we are getting there. Last night just before midnight we passed the half-way point between St. Helena and Grenada. The first half took us 15 days, and it looks like we have no more than 14 days to go. The winds should get stronger as we get further north, so we are hopeful that we can continue to move at an average of 6 knots as we are currently doing. This means we travel more than 140 miles a day and will get us there in two weeks.

We continue to work on getting the freezer back down to temperature. Yesterday’s fix didn’t work, so today we took everything out again, packed the side of the freezer away from the cold plate with vacuum-packed bags of rice to serve as insulation (this side of the freezer is also next the oven) and put a smaller stuff bag with a polar fleece blanket in the top. The cold plate is very cold and everything close to it is solidly frozen, so we are hoping that putting everything closer to the cold plate by packing the opposite side with the bags of rice will do the trick.

We heard from our friend Zbyszek in Australia that a US boat has been taken by Somali “bandits” as he calls them. The boat has the same name as a boat we met in 2006 in the South Pacific. I am anxious to hear what has happened and the names of the people onboard. Evidently there was a man and wife and two crew members. I can only hope they were somehow rescued before getting into Somali waters. Whoever they are and wherever they are, our thoughts are with them.