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American Spirit II - Day 375; The Wind Dies and We Start Motoring; & We Use the Satellite Phone to Send and Receive Emails for the First Time; Wednesday, January 14, 2015



The wind dies at 4:20 AM and we're forced to turn on the iron jenny, i.e., engine.

I get up at 7:00 AM; and at 7:30 AM the wind is still light at 6 knots and we've motor sailing at 5.9 knots thru the water and 6.7 knots over the land. The clouds are solid, low overcast; with some rain showers visible around us.

At 9:20 AM we put two fish lines in the water; one on a pole and the other a hand line. The hand line itself has a string tied around an empty coke can, so that when the line is pulled (a fish hits it), the coke can will make noise so we know to pull the line in.

Tim from Ghost hosts the 10:00 AM net. Folie a Deux appears to be the only boat 100% still sailing, with 14 knots of wind. They're closer to the coast and have more wind. Most of the boats like us have wind at 10 knots or less. Definitely a spinnaker day if you're trying to sail.

Breakfast at 10:25 AM consists of scrambled eggs; cut up potato; chilled mandarin oranges; and brown bread.

At 11:00 AM we use the satellite phone for the first time to send and receive emails and a log; as we've been having a lot of trouble using the SSB radio to do this at night. Most of the boats in the fleet have been using their satellite phones for their email the entire trip. The only negative to using the satellite phone is that it costs $1.20 per minute; and if the average data call is 3 to 4 minutes that equates to about $4.00 a day. The send and receive today lasts 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Certainly easier than spending an hour sitting at the navigation desk at midnight trying to do the same thing, especially when the boat is rocking and rolling.

Since we're motoring we have 'unlimited' hot water, as the hot water heater is only heated when the engine is on or we're on shore power. So at 11:20 AM I opt to take a hot shower. Joel and Jeanine decide to take advantage of the hot water also.

Our noon position is 26 degrees, 39 minutes South; 10 degrees, 25 minutes East; and we're 1,102 miles from St. Helena. The wind is 10 knots and we're moving at 6.6 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land. Its mostly cloudy, with the sun trying to break thru. We're still motor sailing, with the main up, no jib and we're running the engine at 1,600 RPM's. At that rate, we're using .6 gallon of diesel an hour; versus 1.2 gallons when we're at normal cruising speed of 2,300 RPM's. At this fuel consumption rate we can motor 1,000 miles. At 1,400 RPM we can motor about 1,200 miles.

From 12:30 PM to 2:40 PM I type a log and a lot of emails.

We turn the engine off at 2:50 PM; and put the whisker pole up on the port side; don't like it there; roll the jib up; jibe; and put the pole back up on the starboard side. We're now going wing-on-wing.

I take a nap from 3:15 PM to 4:15 PM. At 3:55 PM we take all the sails down as the wind has dropped to too low a speed; and start motoring again.

Joel goes down for a nap at 4:20 PM.

Dinner at 6:15 PM is complicated in that I have 3 items to cook on 2 burners; and 4 items to micro wave. Timing is essential, with everything being ready at the same time. Joel doesn't like spaghetti with red sauce, so he has his spaghetti with butter and garlic powder instead. Plus we have baked potato; mixed vegetables; and left over 5 bean vegetables. Boiling a large pot of water on a rolling boat is always fun...and dangerous. Even with the stove gimballed, you have to be very careful.

I noticed before dinner that the 'down line' on the hydro generator has snapped, so after dinner Joel restring's the hydro as I assist. The line has broken 3 times before so its not something that we don't know how to fix. Experience does that. The line, Dynema, breaks because of the tremendous pressure that the hydro generator exerts when it is in the down position generating power.

The sun sets at 8:21 PM. With clouds on the horizon, there is no green flash. Rain clouds, or are they fog banks?, start to form around us.

I assume the 9:00 PM to midnight watch at 8:23 PM as I'm not tired enough to nap as I usually do before going on watch. With the sun setting during my normal pre-watch nap time, my bio-rhythm is all out of whack.

Also, as we've done in the past, the time we're on on the boat is 'Cape Town Start Time.' Meaning, even though we're in a different time zone as far as our longitude is, we haven't changed our clocks and watches. That's because the fleet can spread out over a couple time zones and that would make coordinating the morning and evening communication nets harder to do. When we get to St. Helena we'll adjust our time pieces two hours...earlier; and we'll do the same when we get to Salvador, Brazil.

By 10:00 PM the clouds are all gone and the stars are out in force. We're still motoring at 5.9 knots thru the water and 6.1 knots over the land. The wind is 6/7 knots; still very light, and too light to sail.

At 11:09 PM I see a ship or boat paralleling us on the port beam. There is no AIS so I don't know if its a rally boat or not. At 11:45 PM the AIS identifies the bogie as a ship, the Pacific Fighter, a cargo ship 620 feet long and heading to Las Palmas (in the Canary Islands).

At 11:45 PM the wind is 4/5 knots and we're motoring along at 6.0 knots thru the water and 6.0 knots over the land.

At 11:58 PM and until 1:00 AM I try to send and receive emails and a log on our SSB radio, but with no luck. So we hook up the satellite phone and transmit and receive using it. The entire transmission takes 3 minutes and 5 seconds. Because we don't have an external satellite phone antennae hooked up, while Joel handles the computer for the data transmission, I stand in the cockpit at the top of the stairs holding the phone in the upright position, pointing the antennae on the phone straight up.

I'm in bed at 1:00 AM. Joel has the midnight to 3:00 AM watch.

Brian Fox



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