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Two Fish - Day 5, What happened to Day 4



13 Jan Offshore from the Colombian / Venezuelan border

The days are blending together faster than margarita ingredients in a dive bar. We had a fire drill on board. The spinnaker halyard goes through a block at the top of the mast. This block is attached by a single screw as it expects only a downward load. We luffed the chute a few times too many and the bolt sheered. James heard the ping noise as the sheared screw hit the deck. He grabbed the binoculars to sight any damage and quickly announced that the bracket was amiss. I then began to lower the sock that snuffs the spinnaker. It would not budge. The damaged part was impeding the progress of the sock. So we did it old school and dropped the billowing 1,300 square foot sail in the lee of the main. I had half of it under control and Gail charged forward to get the other half pinned to the deck. The chute did not get wet and there was no shrimping. Shrimping is when you drag your chute through the water like a shrimp fisherman. In port we will use the extractor to remove the sheared bolt from the bracket and then reinstall. Gail has spares of this bolt in inventory since another boat had a similar failure. We had even checked the bolt prior to setting sail. The chute had been running for over 2 days before it failed. All streaks must end.

We will also replace a leaky shaft seal when we get to port. I am obsessed with a dry bilge and I hope this is the last leak. The operation is easier since the spare seal is stored on the shaft, avoiding having to detach the shaft from the transmission.

I forgot to mention we are having a blast. The sailing conditions are near perfect. The night skies wipe away any cynicism I have about rally brochures. The reality is much better than the press. I continue to enjoy the SSB check in. I dutifully write down the other boats positions and listen to their updates. The group is very kind offering help and good wishes on every call. I thought I would not like traveling in a pack, but the pack spreads out very fast. And it is nice to hail a friendly boat for a quick chat about the seas. We also get weather data from the faster boats to help guide our sail plan decisions.

I did a four hour watch last night in which I hand-steered a large portion since we were wing on wing in some lumpy seas. I was tired and headed to bed. James and Jackie took over and had to play avoid the tankers. It became old school as one tanker had no AIS and the radio officer was rather rude. We are spoiled since we can see targets tens of miles away and we consider close passage a mile of separation. In order to deal with the tough wing on wing sailing James created a new helm seat. Balled up on the deck close to the autopilot he could easily tweak the settings.

The water has the signature blue color even though it is 3 kilometers deep. The water temperature has cooled 3 degrees since St Lucia. The water in the town of Santa Marta is not great to drink so we are making sea water into delicious drinking water as we speak. Sea has visited every day. A large pod of dolphins played by the bows and showed their speed is no match for Two Fish. Jack were jumping out of the water and I assumed it was the dolphins having Jack for supper. The flying fish always bring a smile to my face. When did evolution create a fish with wings? One landed in the dinghy and was not found until a fishy smell had developed.

The usual volatility of predicting arrival time is in full swing. We are fighting a current I did not expect, but are still hoping to arrive in advance of sunset tomorrow (Thursday). We have been lucky as the winds have been mostly under 20. Wish we could email some of the fun we are having. Only 11,700 miles until kangaroos! 800 done (almost).

Jason
www.twofishcat.com



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