Day 8
midday update
pos 14deg41S, 168deg14W
Distance to Apia, Western Samoa: 212 NM, Course is 288deg.
We made it through the night. Conditions are the same. Very rough, the worst we have had on shimmi. Waves are cresting and breaking with long foam tracks, I eventually furled the jib completely, only a sheeted out 3rd reef main and we are running at about 140 degrees to the wind, its made the ride slower (7-8 knots), but more comfortable, we have found our groove, so now we are just counting miles. About 35 hrs to Apia. To make matters even more interesting, there are rain squalls within this whole mess as well! Like I said before, shimmi is not the place to be right now. But we are maintaining, we are sailing conservatively and shimmi feels very safe. But its a wild ride, WILD. Weird looking out over this massive expanse of ocean, white caps and confused waves are far as the eye can see, with dark line squalls obscuring the horizon... and us on shimmi such an insignificant little bit of jetsam, bobbing around with our agenda.
But we are all well, like I said shimmi is in her groove. It took us hours to find this "groove", starting with 2 reefs in the main and a full jib, then reefing at midnight, harnessed into the lifeline, waves crashing over the deck as we round up into the wind. Then sailing for a while with 3rd reef main and three quarter jib, struggling to keep the jib "full", forcing us to reach across this crazy sea (going sideways across it). Then eventually taking the jib out of the equation. I rigged a preventer for the boom which runs forward to a barberhauler amidships, like you do on a monohull, this has made a huge difference. We are now able to run almost dead downwind with no "snatching" on the main sheet. Sorry about all the technical gobblydigook, but there are a few of you whole will appreciate what we are doing.
I have been unable to download sailmail, only send.
Cheers
G
