American Spirit II - Day 274; Crisis in the Indian Ocean - Day 2 of 11; Monday, October 6, 2014

Two days down with our mast still up but 9 more days to go until we get to Mauritius and safety.

I relieved Jeremy early at 5:40 AM. I can see Merlyn of Poole astern of us and closing. At times like these company is appreciated. We will try to transfer a hydraulic cutting tool and hacksaw in a bag between the boats today. These items will help us cut up and discard the mast and rigging if the mast comes down.

At 6:40 AM Cocos Keeling start time the sun rises. A rare, nice sunrise on the Indian Ocean.

I talk with Jonathan on Merlyn at 7:04 AM and 7:15 AM; he's now 500 yards away. He will approach us after the 10:00 AM net and toss a line to us. We in turn will pull the line which will be connected to a bag with cutting tools in it. I also advised him that we'll be putting up our storm jib to act as a staysail after 9:00 AM.

At 8:24 AM the wind is 18/19 and our speed is 5.0 knots.

Sandra from Sweet Pearl hosts the 10:00 AM net. We found out that Folie a Deux, our 'fuel barge' if we need fuel, is 107 miles away. Folie is a 40 foot catamaran owned by Tim and Tracey from Philadelphia.

At 11:10 AM Merlyn of Poole approaches our boat in 8 - 10 foot seas from astern, and pulls up alongside our port aft quarter. We are on auto pilot holding a steady course as Jonathan is driving his boat manually. Both boats are under sail only as it is too rough to motor. Sigi is on the bow ready to throw us a line connected to a tool kit. Merlyn is crashing thru the waves and even rounds up a few times before getting close enough to transfer the 'goods.' If Jonathan, Merlyn's owner and skipper, is not precise in his boat handling skills, his boat's bow can ram our stern and we would both be in deep dodo. Just as Merlyn's bow passes our stern, Sigi stands up and in a maneuver reminiscent of a great Olympic thrower, he heaves the line 50 - 60 feet across the raging sea and it lands on top of our dodger with a loud thud. Joel then grabs the line and pulls on it, and Sigi releases the bad of tools and we pull it across to our boat. The second that the tool bag has left Merlyn, Jonathan steers his boat to the left to get as far away from us as possible. The look on Jonathan's face is intense, as I'm sure mine is, also. No margin for error in this type of boat handling. And due to the preciseness of the maneuver, it only has to be done once. As we look thru the tools, we notice a 'care package' inside, also. A plastic container of Jenny's fudge is enclosed. This fudge is so good that sailor's around the world have been known to fight to the death to capture it. Thank you Jenny and Jonathan!

We took down our storm sail or staysail as we're calling it now, at 11:30 AM to make some adjustment to it. We're using this very small sail to keep our boat from rounding up into the waves as the large ones try to steer us to port, where the wind is coming from. It also gives us some at additional speed; and it helps pull the mast forward because its halyard is tied onto the mast. This 'halyard' is actually the whisker pole's topping lift line. After this Joel and Jeremy take down the whisker pole and tie it to the port side of the boat on the deck along the lifeline. Reason: if we lose the mast we will use it as our new mast. Waste not want not; or something like that.

Our noon position is 17 degrees, 2 minutes South; and 81 degrees, 8 minutes East. And we are 1,347 nautical miles from Mauritius. We traveled 119 nautical miles from noon yesterday, averaging 4.96 knots.

At 12:30 PM we restock the bottom shelf of the refrigerator with beer, coke and diet coke. With the constant rocking and rolling we're doing in the Indian Ocean, the cans on the bottom shelf have sliding around in the refrigerator making a racket. To stop the racket, load it up.

From 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM I type a log and do some emails; then nap from then until 3:50 PM. Joel also takes a nap at 2:30 PM.

When I get up the wind is 15/16 and we're doing 4.5 knots thru the water and 5.4 over the land. The wind is just aft of the port beam as we don't want it on the beam or forward of the beam. Doing so will push the mast backwards. We want the mast to be pushed forward because of our broken forestay.

At 4:30 PM I call Jonathan on Merlyn and we arrange a check in period every two hours 24 hours a day. If we don't call, then they will call us. If they call us and we don't answer, then they will come get us as that will probably mean the mast is down. Our radio antennas are at the top of the mast or on the backstay. Though we have an emergency antenna, if the mast comes down we'll be dealing with that first before hooking up the emergency antenna.

Dinner at 6:00 PM consists of freeze dried Noodles with Chicken; corn on the cob, garlic bread and chilled fruit cocktail. Boiling hot water on the gimbaled stove in rough conditions is always fun.

I turn the generator on at 6:30 PM and we'll run it for 3 hours. As we do so we'll also run the water maker for 3 hours.

Sandra from Sweet Pearl hosts the 7:00 PM net.

I nap from 7:20 PM to 9:00 PM before my 9:00 PM to midnight watch. Joel wakes me at 8:50 PM. I am out like a light.

In order that we all remember to call Merlyn every two hours, I leave my I Phone in the cockpit table in a ziplock bag so it alarms every 2 hours and we don't forget to make the radio call. Unfortunately we have no other alarm mechanism on the boat.

At 9:00 PM the wind is 13/15, our speed thru the water is 4.6 knots and over the land it is 4.4 knots. Must be a current against us a little. We're heading 259 degrees.

At 9:50 PM the wind is only 16/21 so I shake out (take out) a reef in the mainsail. We now have one reef in instead of two. Later I go to a full main. The sky is full of moon and stars. A beautiful night; just very wavy and a little cool out, temperature wise.

At 12:14 AM I try to send out a log and some emails but all the SSB frequencies are occupied. So I take a shower and try again at 12:41 AM. I'm successful this time, connecting to a SSB station in Brunei, Philippines 2,430 miles away at a bearing of 60 degrees True. It takes until 1:52 AM because Joel has ordered a GRIB weather file and it is over 17,000 bytes large. BIG!

Brian