12:30 AM - I awake to noise topside. I get up and Yves and Greg have taken the main sail down trying to get more air to the spinnaker. I go back to sleep after about 15 minutes - realizing I have nothing to do. Before I do,Greg pulls his back with the last sheet pulled in. He is in pain and takes naproxen.
Greg wakes me at 3 AM for my shift. He has been trying to optimize the spinnaker in a shifting wind and gives me some directions if the wind shifts. I settle in.
At 3:30 I see that something is wrong with the spinnaker. It has broken free from one of the shackles and is billowing aimlessly like a flag to port side. I wake Yves up. We spend the next hour and a bit working on this. Yves finally finds the right sized shackle from the weather vain line and fixes if. We have to start the motor, but it is locked, so Yves opens the engine down below (meaning he has to remove the kitchen table). Finally we get things under control.
Without sails we were doing 3 knots. The weather is balmy and we swam in 27 degree water yesterday. Yves thinks we may be in the Gulf Stream which was part of the plan.
Yves went to bed and Greg is sleeping. It is 5:30 AM and we are doing 6.9 knots and are about 1000 nautical miles from our destination. I still think we will hit Flores by Monday. I miss Pam and the kids very much and hope they are doing well. I think of them often every day.
At 7:30 Yves is up and listening to the "radio de captain". Greg is up as well with his very sore back. I go to bed
I awake at 9:45 to the sound of some beeping. I get up and can't find the source. I join the other two topside and grab coffee and a brownie. we redo the sails. We take the spinnaker down, haul up the genoa and main sails. My arms are killing me from grinding (using the winch) for all the lines. I also finally figure out that sheets draw horizontally and halyards are vertical - this is starting to help the communication between myself and Yves ;)
Greg goes to bed to rest his back and Yves tackles the engine. He thinks he knows how to fix the lock problem. I help as much as I can. We are at it for hours and I get to see every inch of the engine. He finally able to wrestle the last, almost stripped nut off the gear shaft and reposition the gearing so it does not lock in reverse. We clean up and put everything back.
The weather is 25 and slightly overcast. The waves are calm but with large 6 foot swells - but well spaced.
We are averaging 4 knots in the afternoon and I think we are out of the Gulf Stream. Yves says it is best that we navigate north of Flores so that we won't be caught without wind.
After a quick nap, I cook dinner. It is spaghetti noodles with Prego chunky sauce and canned chicken breast. It is passable. We watch Yves video of the Rusee's first voyage across the Atlantic from Normandy in 2004 when Yves bought her. They had dolphins and whales - I feel ripped off ;). But there is still time. With the poor speed I think it may be Tuesday before we reach port now.
I clean up and we start the motor and take down the genoa and center the main sail. The rocking has stopped (we were doing less than 1 knot during diner and the waves hitting the beam had us a little dizzy).
I start my watch - sissy watch tonight. I am okay with that. We have almost half a moon a few stars are penetrating the light cloud cover. It is 22.2 degrees out with a 4.2 knot wind at our backs. We are motoring at around 5 knots. The water is 24.2 degrees in temperature. There is nothing on the horizon except water. The horizon is about 10 miles and we haven't seen another boat since we left Bermuda. We saw a few marlin thrashing when we left, two fly fish have landed in the cockpit, and we have seen many seagulls and the first few days - Bermuda Long-tails. We have renamed "Steve" the seagull to "Mine" as it reminds of what the seagulls in Finding Nemo always said.
That said, I look up and see lights at 3 o'clock on the starboard side. Red, green and white and then to the right another white light. I call Yves who is still up. It is a v large freighter about 2 miles away and steaming south past us. I have been complacent and now lucky that it may have avoided us. I am now super vigilant and Yves turns the radar on and shows me how to use it. I spend the night scanning the horizon and double checking on radar. I am happy when the shift ends and I have nothing to report.