Today was a day of lots of wind – we were sailing dead downwind still – but with just a small jib out and nothing else, rocking and rolling all over the place and making over 8 knots! The seas are horrible – 8 – 10 ft and very close together making for a very uncomfortable ride.

It was also a day for electronics – as in them acting up… Not only did we not have a working autopilot, but several of the screens were no longer working. There must be a loose connection somewhere – it’ll be a nightmare finding out where!

This evening the wind backed off and we were able to set the main with 2 reefs. Then, I had to switch to the genoa to bring our speed up – as our ETA was beginning to cooincide with the big blow expected at Horta on Sunday afternoon… We’re now sailing in about 15 knots, making about 7 downwind – we’ll see how long this lasts!

It’s been an uncomfortable 24 hours – We were dead downwind for much of the day, rolling with ever bigger swells such that sleep was simply not possible as we each held on to our balance while attempting sleep in the rear cabin.

A modicum of relief came when we switched the reefed and poled-out genoa for our smaller jib and slowed the boat a little – but still, sleep is a sought after commodity these days aboard Toodle-oo!

Landfall is expected early Sunday morning – just ahead of a serious 30 – 40 knot blow at our destination, Horta – timed for Sunday afternoon – fingers crossed that nothing delays us…

Forgot to mention…
Just to add some angst to the equation, our electronics have started acting up some – first the AIS system (identifies other vessels) stopped working – followed quickly by our autopilot!
Fortunately, we’re relying on Gail, our mechanical ‘Monitor’ windvane to steer us true…

We’re still headed dead downwind, still with poled out genoa and the main – wing and wing. The wind has increased a bit – and along with that, the waves are up too – now about 6 – 8 ft, following seas. The boat is rolling all over the place making sleep difficult.

We’re still on the rhumb line with just 525 miles to go – which puts us in to an early Sunday morning arrival most likely – and the forecast is for more of the same – so we should be able to sail the whole way in!

Not much to tell today – nice spinnaker run all day – first off to the east, then we turned dead downwind and headed north east, towards Horta. For the night, we took down the spinnaker and have ended up wing on wing with genoa pole to starboard and both jib and full main to port.

As of noon today we’ve travelled 1930 miles at an average speed of 6.7nmph we have 747 miles to go (if we followed the rhumb line) and we have used the engine for just 20 hours – 7.1% of the time. Not bad!

Still no bloody fish!

It was a slow day today. Very little wind – but we managed to keep sailing all day. Except that is, for one minor detour when I spotted one of those really big ball fenders floating out there in the wild blue yonder. It was about a quarter mile off our port side, so we decided to check it out. We turned the engine on…

I started turning left – and then suddnly realized that that would put us in a gybe – duh! So we brought in the mainsheet and set the main amidships and started to furl the code zero as we turned.

The code zero got all tied up and wouldn’t come in – so we pressed on with a half in-half out sail and headed for the fender.

As we approached we could see it was from a fishing boat – with a long length of floating line attached. I approached slowly slightly downwind of it and then turned into the wind and alongside – but not close enough – Laurie couldn’t grab it.

Shit! We’ve still got the fishing gear trolling behind – and now the line is lying right over the floating line attached to the fender… I speed up to get the line away from the fender and motor upwind. The code zero now decides to unfurl itself so our attention changes to that and after a little, we manage to get it furled (helps when you let the sheet go dumb-ass!

Attention turns to our fishing line, but in the melee it has now managed to get itself wrapped around the keel, the prop or the rudder – or all three for all I know. We pull in the lure and sure enough the line goes taut and I have to cut it to freee up both the rod and the lure – leaving a length of fishing line somewhere down on our underbelly.

I turned the boat around and this time our approach is better and we bring aboard the fender – a beautiful big pink one, and about 30 feet of horrible stinking line, full of barnacles and little crabs! We can’t leave it floating around the ocean waiting for some unsuspecting sailboat to run into it at night and foul their prop – so we ift it aboard too and bag it. We now have a big smelly line in the cockpit locker, a large pink fender adorns our stern and our fishing line is somewhat shorter than it used to be!!

This evening we’re ghosting along at about 4 knots in 7 knots of wind. Dead downwind using 3 headsails – the code zero on port, genoa poled out on starboard and our storm sail lashed amidships to attempt to stop the rolling. The storm sail isn’t doing what it’s supposed to! 🙁

Cheers!

The wind turned light on us last night  but we were able to keep sailing – albeit slightly south of our intended course. Although the course deviation was really minor, we’re in a location that if we stray too far, we end up with the wrong weather – either no wind or too much. Actually right now it’s either wind or no wind…

So this morning we decided to gybe over and regain some lost latitude (turn left, head north!), which meant sailing wing on wing, dead downwind with genoa one side, main the other. Very doable, but a little anxious as accidental gybes can happen quite easily if the helm isn’t kept in great control. But the wind kept dropping and we felt we didn’t have enough sail up – so we set up a sail arrangement I’ve been wanting to try out for years!

We took down the main altogether. The genoa was poled out to port and then we raised the code zero, with it’s sheet held out to starboard with a block placed on the end of the main boom which we’d swung as far out to starboard as we could. 2 large ‘pole out’ headsails kept our course at true dead downwind (NE) and we managed to make 5 – 6 knots in just 8 to 10 knots of true wind. It was very cool!

We made enough northing by the end of the day that we were able to fall off and raise the main again and we’ve been flying ever since; due east (our desired course) at between 7.5 and 8.5 knots.

According to our weather forecaster, we should be able to maintain these winds for another day or so – but then it’s likely to fall very calm and we’ll probably motor for a day or so…

So far we’ve managed to keep our use of the engine to an absolute minimum – less than 10% of the time… Excellent!

It’s a beautiful clear evening, with a nearly full moon giving us excellent light throughout the night. Life is good aboard Toodle-oo! – though we could really use some decent movies to watch!!!

With 1385 miles done and with 1300 rhum-line miles to go, we figured we were about half way – and is the custom aboard Toodle-oo! (and many other sailboats), we enjoyed cocktails in the cockpit at sunset on our 9th day at sea!

All well aboard – though we’ve been rock and rolling on a downwind sail for too long now.We’re both tired and crabby! We did screw up the sail for a while with a failed attempt to fly the spinnaker, in order to reduce the amount of rolling we were experiencing – but fortunately, the wind dropped and changed direction just enough to allow us to fly a poled out genoa and reefed main instead – and get a comfortable ride finally… We’re now headed due east with the wind across the beam! 🙂

Cheers!

We’ve had plenty of wind today – 20 knots – from pretty much behind us and sailing with main and poled out genoa. Trouble with this is that the boat rolls from side to side – which is going to make sleeping tonight quite a challenge! Rather that though than find the boat full of water!

I keep putting 2 fishing lines out – but so far all I’m catching is seaweed!

All good aboard – looks like more of the same for tomorrow…

Cheers!

All’s well today. Water leak traced to a rusted out hose clamp – every time the engine ran, water poured into the bilge.

Sailed all day with spinnaker in light wind. Unfortunately running the engine again tonight, but wind expected soon.

Update: Wind filled in – we’re sailing again!!

Nothing like a bit of drama to cocentrate the mind…

10:00pm:

I’d just taken over watch and made myself a cup of coffee. All seems fine – other than we had no wind and were now motoring. I remembered we’d forgotten to do a bilge check yesterday – something rather new for Toodle-oo! since ur bilge is normally very dry – but our bilge pump has decided to act up a bit. The switch seems to be in the ‘On’ position permanently – so it’s pumping a very dry bilge. We’ve therefore adopted a manual arrangement – but that means regular bilge inspections to see if the pump needs to be turned on.

A couple of days ago we made water and filled both tanks to overflowing – except they didn’t (!) overflow that is. Yesterday I remembered to do the check and whoa!!! The bilge had a LOT of water in it! I guess that explains the overflow…

Back to tonight… I opened up the floor panel and was greeted with a very full bilge! – to within 4″ of the floor! How much water does an Outbound bilge hold? (I seem to keep testing this one!). I turned on the pump and went looking for the source. I checked the forward compartment where the speed and depth transducers reside – but the whole compartment was underwater so I couldn’t tell – I decided I’d better help with some manual pumping.

Ten minutes later I had cleared the bilge (actually it was now full of debris from all the various compartments that has accumulated over the last ten years!). The sensors were all sound. The water maker area was dry. Found it! Water streaming at the back of the engine – either the turbo has sprung a leak (I hope not) or the exhaust elbow has. PITA but better than the turbo option!

I’ve decided that the flow is of a rate that the pump can keep up with, but not a good thing! Still with no wind, it being dark and the engine being hot, I decided to keep the engine going for the time being, monitor (and pump) and leave resolution until the morning…

All sorts of lessons for Toodle-oo!’s crew here!!!!