American Spirit II - Day 64; Found the Wind; Saturday, March 9, 2014

Up 7:15 AM. Lot of motion on boat during the night. A little uncomfortable. Tropical Trough to our right, skies clearing to our left. Wind 19 knots from SE. Speed over ground 7.3 knots.

At 7:50 AM I pushed wrong button on chart plotter by mistake. Screen light on chart plotter was still set on 'night viewing,' so I couldn't see the screen. Boat did 360. That's always fun. Once it started its turn I just stayed with it and when our course came up I grabbed the wheel again and steadied the boat. Not for the faint of heart. As a result of this the wind turbine 'wrapped.' A small leather line used to unwind it actually wrapped around the 3 propeller blades. Joel stood on stanchion in cockpit with boat hook and unwound, while I held onto his belt. He then put a preventer back on the main, to mitigate damage to boat when jibing unexpectently.

The wind that we found ended up being only 30 miles south of where we were all day Friday. We should have headed south sooner, like right after the 11:00 AM
Friday net when we suspected that wind might be to our left because some boats were getting wind in that direction. How much wind do we have now? We're surfing at 10.3 knots. Lot of wind.

Large flying fish on deck. 7 inches. I wonder what it feels like if one boards the boat and hits you when you're in the cockpit? Hopefully we won't find out.

Noon position: 5 degrees, 39 minutes South; 104 degrees, 17 minutes West. 2,075 miles to go to Hiva Hoa. Sailed 905 miles so far.

12:34 PM took reef out of main. Sailing 7.5 knots with 16 - 18 knots of wind from SSE.

3:45 PM auto pilot cut off, boat rounded up and did a 360 circle again. This happens when the auto pilot gets overpowered by waves; when the boat keeps rounding up into the wind and waves. We put the reef back in the main sail again. This slows the boat down, lessons the heel, and gives us more control.

Dinner consisted of blue fin tuna cooked by Chef Joel on the aft grill. Hard to do. Wind blew grill gas out once. Also peas and carrots and sliced pineapple.

After the sun set, we could actually see a few stars. Not a lot. Still too many clouds.

Toe still hurts. Can't put shoe on right foot.

At 9:34 PM one of our (beloved) stanchion drink holders dropped on the cockpit floor and slid thru the hole under the rear seat. It ended up on the transom. As I threw myself down on the cockpit floor to retrieve it, I got held up because I had my harness on. I had to unhook it and when I then (belatedly) tried to grab the drink holder it plopped over the transom into the ocean. Adios! Or, as Joel would say, 'Fumble!'

During the 8:00 PM net one boat said they sailed by a pod of whales. We'd like to do the same, just not too closely. Whales sink ships! I hope they sailed 'by' the whales and not 'thru' them. The latter is dangerous.

At 11:00 PM wind 20 knots, boat speed over the ground 6.5 to 7.5 knots. Stars tonight. Half a moon. Nice. A little less wind, say 15 knots, would be good.

Brian Fox