Blue Moon - day 18 blog

Yesterday, ….what happened yesterday. Time is flying so fast these days. We are in a full routine mode and there is always something to do. Getting the daily jobs done like cleaning the heads (toilets on the boat), rig check, garbage into the anchor locker, cut plastic in little pieces and stuck them into a 5lt water bottle, plotting position, writing a blog, checking the weather and arc news, wash the cockpit and galley (kitchen on a boat), checking fresh food and of course cocking food and open one of our daily boat presents. We do like good food and we do have some really good chefs (cook on a boat)onboard. Then we always have to fix something, watching the fishing line, prepping the caught fish, reading, sunbathing, helming (steering the boat), getting some sleep in, take a bucket salt water shower and do laundry at the same time or just hang out somewhere on the sun deck.

Yesterday our goal was - every degree counts. The wind is exactly on the nose (and believe me you can not sail into wind). We had to go either far north or far south which means not making way towards St Lucia. Sailing north we had wind, waves and a 3m swell against us, so not moving a lot and banging instead. Sailing south we could hardly make 185 degrees (under 180 was a no go as that means we're sailing back). Our tacking angles were horrible and the courses painful. But the crew gave there very best to push the boat to the limits and with all the tacking (weird tracking ob yb) we could make a bit of way good as the wind at least got a bit stronger.

The full moon night was very helpful to keep an eye on squalls and we also passed a hug one on port side. So far didn't get caught in one yet. Anyway at one point we decided to put first reef one and as the wind increased rapidly over 20kts reef two in. At that point we've seen our topping lift halyard (the line that holds the boom with the main sail up) wild flying around. It has to come down asap not to damage the sail or anything else. But how to reach a flying line with a metal shackle at the end in 20 kts upwind? We hove to and the boat stop immediately. We are always only two on watch. The halyard was hanging close to the mast but up to high to grab. Mättu had to climb acrobatically up the mast a bit and got it down safely. Everything sorted out - now the wind was gone and we kept sailing southwestwards in snail speed. But we are moving, that counts.