Aloha!
It is a spectacularly pretty day out here on the Big Blue.
A charming 10-12 knots with SPARSELY scattered white caplets and scattered smallish puffy white clouds. (I bet it's a pretty satellite image.)
We are gently pulling our hulls across the surface, trying to ease along this swell. We are all working on a bit of a sleep deficit, Jeff especially. So if I have to fall off our intendend (but less comfortable) course for little bit so he can get a few solid hours rest... so be it.
Last night, after we brought the mainsail down to the first reef... a typical nightly exercise to run slightly depowered through the dark solo watches. As we were trimming the sail we noticed something sticking out. (Which even if you don't sail, you would think was weird.) A batten (a long fiberglass rod that is sewn into a pocket in the sail and runs 90° off the mast...) had busted out of its pocket and was sticking out behind the sail.
Ugh. Gotta fix it! So, dark o'clock maneuvers again. We drop the main down to where the offending batten is laying on the boom, roll up the jib, fire up the port engine and head east (nose of the boat into the wind, so the sail doesn't try to flop around). And get to work. Deck lights, head lamps, gloves (stupid unpainted fiberglass) harnesses and tethers, we wrestle this thing back into its sleeve, then Jeff gets out his sail repair kit and starts sewing a patch on the busted pocket flap-thing. My guy has SKILZ! An hour or so after we just wanted to reef the main sail, we are finally sailing again. Hahahaha.
Jeff enjoys this kind of thing. Solving problems as they come up. No big deal. Just do it. I guess it appeals to his sense if independence. Me? Meh, not my fave. But then again, whatcha gonna do?
After my midnight watch the stars were still phenomenal. I pulled out a sleeping bag and settled on the "bench" in the cockpit . Jeff and I watched the thin cresent moon rise. And I slept there until the morning sun started baking me ... just like a pig in a blanket!!! Haha.
Love and light,
Fair winds
~e.
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