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American Spirit II - Day 62; Spinnaker Sailing & Doing Laundry; Thursday, March 7, 2014



Awakened abruptly at 6:00 AM with commotion topside. The boat Auto Pilot had shut itself off and the sails were flopping around. Joel, who got off watch at 3:00 AM, got up to handle with Mike. I assumed watch duties shortly thereafter, and observed that we had two large storm cells in front of us, one on the left and one on the right. Wind 9/10 knots, speed over the ground 7.0 knots. Life is good. Auto Pilot shut off at 8:20 AM again. I was in forward part of cockpit when this occurred. The boat heads into the wind when this happens. I just let the boat go, doing a 360 circle. When the heading (265 degrees) that I wanted came up again, I grabbed the wheel and continued sailing. Also got a 'P.E' come up on chart plotter. Position Error? Not sure. Never saw that one before.

At 9:25 AM we started putting up the spinnaker. What's involved is first we have to go to the V-Berth cabin in the front of the boat, lift a cushion up, and pull out the spinnaker bag and lines and sheets. Then haul it up to the deck at the front of the boat; hook the bottom of the spinnaker mechanisms to a shackle on the anchor roller; attached a halyard to it (a line that pulls sails up to the top of the mast); run sheets on each side of the boat; run two parallel control lines on the starboard side of the boat; attach these 2 control lines to a cleat; hoist the spinnaker up;unfurl the spinnaker, which is on its own roller furling; then roll up the jib. Done. The whole process from start to finish took us 20 minutes. We immediately picked up 1 to 1 1/2 knots in boat speed. Now sailing at 7.9 knots over the ground.

While up on the fore deck, we found 1 3 1/2 inch squid and 3 small flying fish. May they rest in peace. Speed up to 8.6 knots. This is fun.

At 10:40 AM we caught our first fish of this leg, a 2 pound blue fin tuna. The lure that hooked him was a silver spoon. What we use the most in Florida to catch Spanish Mackerel. Joel filleted the fish and I put it in the refrigerator for later retrieval.

Our Noon position was 4 degrees south, 50 minutes South; and 99 degrees, 14 minutes West. 2,380 miles to go to Hiva Hoa. We've already gone 600 miles, averaging 150 miles per day.

Mike used the newly delivered $50.00 non-electric washing machine to do 2 loads of laundry. This 'washing machine' is the size of a basketball and is set in a plastic bracket with four legs and a suction cup at the base of each leg. A full load holds 4 1/2 pounds of laundry. Each load took 3 gallons of fresh water to do. 6 quarts of water to wash, and 6 to rinse. 4 tablespoons of Tide. After putting the water, detergent then clothes in the washing machine, Mike turned a crank for a few minutes. First one direction, then the other. This agitated and pressurized the water in the device, allowing the soap to permeate Mike clothes and clean them. Next the water was emptied out into the galley sink. The device is then filled with water again, this time without deterrent, and then you turn the device again to rinse the cloths. Even with one rinsing, the cloths will still smell more 'Tide fresh' than one would like. Even though we make our own water with our Spectra Water Maker, doing so uses energy and it takes one hour to make 5 gallons of water. So one rinse is all you get. Because we have a 5 gallon hot water heater on the boat, we can actually wash our clothes in hot water if we want to. It doing 'whites' bleach is added, also.

Once the clothes are washed, we then set up our electric clothes dryer on the gimbaled stove top. In order for the central fugal dryer to work, it must be within 1 or 2 degrees of level. The dryer expels the water out of the newly washed clothes by spinning really fast. Can do 1 or 2 shirts at a time. But its quick and we can dry these 2 shirts in a minute. This dryer does not heat the clothes up to dry them. Just spins them.

After the clothes are put thru the dryer, then they're hung up on the life lines to sun and wind dry. Non-cotton clothes will dry in an hour. Cotton much longer. That's why too much cotton clothing on a sail boat is a no-no. Bulky to wash, hard to dry, and it smells more than non-cotton fabric. Joel has a lot of cotton clothes. I don't. At least not that I wear on the boat. I save cotton for landside.

The whole process of doing Mike's 2 loads of laundry took about 1 1/2 hours. In the future we'll probably only do 1 load of laundry a day to limit water usage.

Getting back to the subject of water usage, we use at least 5 gallons per person per day, or 15 gallons per day, excluding laundry. That means we have to run the water maker 3 hours per day. And unless we're generating a lot of amp hours with the hydro generator, we need to run the boat's engine or generator when doing so.

By 7:30 PM we still had the spinnaker up, but the wind had dropped to 9/10 knots. Was in the 10 to 12 knot range all day. By 10:30 PM the wind had dropped to 8 knots, and that dropped our speed to 6.5 knots over the ground.

Every few minutes the wind increases 2 to 3 knots, resulting in the boat 'pulling' to windward (where the wind is coming from). The increase in wind speed makes the boat go faster, and because the boat pulls a few degrees to the left in this case and to the wind, the 'apparent wind' picks up and increases boat speed even more. Then the wind speed goes back down 2 to 3 knots, the boat 'turns right' back on course and slows down again. This process repeats itself every few minutes.

Cloudy sunset, and the moon set about 10:3 PM. Both on the bow.

During my 8:00 PM to 12 midnight watch, the spinnaker only 'collapsed' once. Collapsed means that the sail loses its shape and stops functioning. Its noisy when this happens, with rigging banging. One collapse in 4 hours is acceptable. Especially in light air. Not good in heavy air, but then we don't try to fly this sail when the wind is over 15 knots.

Brian Fox

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