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American Spirit II - Day 75; Motoring , Sail Changes & 2nd Green Flash; Wednesday, March 19, 2014



Between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM 2 rain showers doused the boat. One heavy shower on Joel's 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM watch which was so heavy it woke Mike up; and a lighter rain shower during Mike's watch, between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM.

The sunrise at 6:50 AM was, you guessed it, obstructed by clouds. Nevertheless, the different cloud configurations can be quite beautiful, depending on how the light rays shine thru and around the edges of the clouds. The wind was blowing at 10-14 knots; and our boat speed was 4.0 knots, with a .7 knot helping current.

Sail changes. Changing headsail's is never without risk. Any time someone goes forward of the cockpit, any time a pole goes up or down; any time you jibe a mainsail; there is risk of damage and injury. There is a human tendency to 'do it now.' On a boat, where distances are measured in hundreds and even thousands of miles, and time not in hours but in days and weeks, there is never an immediate need to change a sail too quickly, except in one instance - reducing sail due to increase wind. You can never reduce sail too quickly. Usually, we wait too long to make a reduction, and that often times results in what I call a 'Chinese fire drill.'

At 9:30 AM I talked to Erik at Sailors Wharf about ordering our main sheet traveler car. He said he had talked to Lewmar, and that they were shipping it to him overnight. He would then ship it to our agent in Tahiti overnight.

Breakfast preparation started out bad. Three of the eggs I cracked open were bad. How do you know an egg is bad? It smells awful once its opened up! Yuck. And it looks as bad as it smells. A bad egg like these would close a Pancake House if a food inspector saw it.

Noon position: 9 degrees, 5 minutes South; 131 degrees, 50 minutes West. 430 miles to Hiva Oa.


Between noon and 1:30 PM we did 3 loads of laundry. Joel, Mike and I each did one of our own. Mine included the boat dish rags and towels.

At 1:15 PM the fateful decision was made to 'power up,' i.e., start motoring again. With our speed down to 4.1 knots, its was time to start the 'iron jenny.' Our iron jenny is a Yanmar 54 horsepower diesel engine, that burns .6 of a gallon of fuel an hour at the fuel conservation RPM of 1600 RPM's. Once we started motoring, our speed increased from 4.1 to 6.1 knots.

Today marked the end of the fruit. The last to go were the apples. They didn't spoil, we just don't have any more. However, we still have few fruit flies buzzing around.

At 3:41 PM we reached a new milestone. 400 miles to Hiva Hoa. Yea!

Early diner tonight (5:00 PM). Joel was hungry. Dinner consisted of blackened chicken on the grill; a micro wave pizza for Mike; and mixed chilled fruit cocktail. Plus crackers with strawberry jelly, peanut butter and while cake frosting.

The communications's net was held at 6:00 PM.

At 7:00 PM the sun set, and for the first time in my sailing life I saw a green flash emanate off of a could top, not the horizon. It lasted 2 seconds. Joel and Mike missed it. First time Joel and I have watched for a green flash where one of us saw it and the other didn't. Always before this, if one see's the flash, the other saw it also. The flash lasted 2 seconds because the boat was being lifted by a wave. This green flash is only the second one we've had since leaving Tampa January 4.

Lot of stars at 9:00 PM when my watch started. The moon rose out of the east thru the clouds at 9:40 PM. Awesome. The Milky Way was visible,with its billions of stars. Along with the Southern Cross.

At 11:45 PM we had a navigation anomaly. The blue line which designates current on the chart plotter screen started moving all over the place, doing 360's, going in the wrong direction, etc. After a few minutes we lost our position on the chart plotter altogether. Then an alarm sounded, waking Joel up 10 minutes for his watch. We rebooted the navigation system, the chart plotter came back up, and the problem was gone.

Brian Fox

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