Canada Day!!!!!
I am awoken at 3 AM by Greg for my watch. Nothing to report, the winds have been steady around 7-10 knots. I grab my jacket, life vest and iPod and take over.
I have gotten comfortable sitting under the dodger (wind protector) with my feet hanging down the steps. All of a sudden the winds pick up to 18-19 knots and the spinnaker has us keeled over hard to port and bow. The autopilot alarm is blaring that we are off course.
I think to myself that this is way too much wind for the spinnaker. I am worried that it will tip us and fill with water, preventing the boat from right-siding (Greg had told a story about that happening to him once with a friend's boat). Yves is up like a shot and topside, but cool and collected. The wind was just a gust and we are back to being okay - except for my racing heart. Greg is up too.
We decide to take down the main sail. We get a knot in the main haleyard which adds to the excitement and then the automatic shackle for the spinnaker sheet gets loose and it is flapping in the wind. We get that under control after a minute of confusion trying to understand why it is flapping. We get it under control, tidy up the lines and they go back to bed after turning off the deck lights. I sit back and try and relax.
We are 270 nm from Flores and making about 6 knots. ETA is now Tuesday morning. Yves had told me that his latest weather update says we will now get winds taking us into Flores - his buddy Bill Kennedy (owns the sailboat Dragonfly and is in Florida) had previously reported that there would be no wind the last 200 nm.
The winds are dying and by the end of my shift they around 5 knots. I see a couple of dolphins swim past me as my shift ends. I awake Yves for his turn and I go to bed.
I awake at 9 just as the engines are turned on. The wind is gone and we are going to motor for a few hours and see what happens - charging batteries as we go and ovide anough energy for transmission to the mariners on ham radio.cxIt is sunny and warm. Coffee helps get the cob webs out and I have a bowl of raisin bran with dried cranberries for breakfast. We hoist the Canada flag and fly it proudly from the stern of the Rusee de Jersey (we don't fly it everyday as it can get caught in the aqua generator as it turns).
We have an easy day of reading and relaxing (a few naps here and there by all). A French sailboat is about 100 nm behind us also heading to Flores. They heard about our accident and are available should we have any future issues. Very nice to know. They also saw the abandoned Canada sailboat that we had heard about. It's mainsail was torn, but looked in reasonable shape. They did not board it as they had no means to salvage it (in international waters, the rules are "finders keepers".
Greg made a chicken rice dish with peanuts for dinner. We had tea and some chocolate for dessert and then I did the dishes. We all went topside for the sunset, hoping to catch the now infamous "green flash". No such luck (we now believe it may be a warm climate phenomenon), but enjoyed the orange hues just as well. The moon is out and almost full. My watch should be enjoyable - 9 PM (we crossed another time line and are now 3 hours ahead of Toronto) and 19.3 degrees out and 7 knot winds. We are 196 nm from Flores and doing between 5 and 5 knots.
No fire works so far ;(