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Lexington - 3/20/17. 10°. 03 ' south. 133°. 40' west NIGHT SAILING



It is my watch again, 6 to 9 p.m. We have been sailing with the asymmetrical spinnaker most of the day. We took it down for a couple of squalls. Actually the other crew did. I was taking a nap and slept thru it all.
So the quandary is what do you do at night. The person on watch is up all alone. Squalls happen much more often at night. Our spinnaker is very large. If we get a gust up to 18 knots it will really lay the boat over. But the winds are light in the 8-10 range and we like the speed of the spinnaker. We could go back to our twin head sails but we would probably lose a knot of speed. Our options are: 1. Motor all night but I hate to motor when we have some wind; 2. Continue with the asymmetrical spinnaker but that has more risk and we are not experts; or, 3. Rig the twin head sails but they are slower and it would take 30-60 minutes to set it up. So our answer is that Sam and I will fly the spinnaker until we are thru at midnight and then motor thru the rest of the night. It is like being an intern in the hospital at night. Your responsibility increases as the night progresses. It was funny how I was allowed to handle situations after midnight that I would not have handled during the day.
We are 315 miles out. I look at the numbers only when I am doing a post. I try not to otherwise. It sure will be nice to get the longest leg behind us. Do you think you can read this stuff for 12 more months? I am not sure I will be as good about writing daily.
We have the usual chores but a little different. We only have a limited energy supply and we keep track more often because we have to recharge our batteries to be functional. It appeared to me that we were using a little more energy and the refrigeration was not working as well. To try to remedy that we cleaned the strainer for the sea water that is used in the system. I also emptied out the refrigerator and the freezer and cleaned all the frost off the condensation plates. Hopefully that will make us more efficient. For sure, smart people would not sign up for this. May fair winds fill your sails, not your head with hot air! Bob

 


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