Day 10 – July 16th
We all settled into our life at sea. Life is very simple:
Sail fast, sleep
just enough and eat chocolate bars. 850 miles to go. We had
another 201 mile
run over the last 24 hours. Gunnar is pleased and the crew
happy with that.
Time flies now. Less than a day ago we were still over
1,000 miles from
Hawaii and now we are closing in on land. We have a fresh
garbage bag this
morning – a clear sign of progress!
Black watch
reported a school of Tuna leaping away from Turicum’s bow wave
earlier this
morning – apparently surprised by our appearance in their
watery world. More
flying fish – still carefully avoiding the frying pan.
Mike turned out to
be not only a highly skilled trimmer and reliable mast
person but we also
realized his secret talents as an ornithologist. He
discovered the elusive
and rare White Pacific Seabird. We spotted it only
twice on this
trip.
It was Terry`s 39th birthday yesterday. Being a Newfie, Don got him
a `` Bag
of Cod`` and a bottle of Screech (Rum from NF). We all celebrated
Terry with
a big swig of Screech and also paid tribute to Poseidon by
offering him a
good splash.
I was just getting ready to go on deck
when Turicum healed over more than
usual and we heard Mike on the helm
yelling for more hands on deck. As I
scrambled up the companion way I saw
him on the cockpit floor, holding on to
the helm with one hand. Looking
forward I just got a glimpse of the pole
grazing the surface of a furious
wave. With both of us on the helm turning
the wheel hard and Dave easing the
spinnaker sheet, we managed to get
Turicum back on her feet.
It was
blowing steadily at 25 knots gusting to 30+ knots and Turicum just
ploughed
through the water. Like a race horse, she pulled forward with each
gust,
accelerating down the waves. 14 knots, 15 knots, I broke my personal
speed
record on the boat with almost every passing wave. One wave, bigger
than the
others, lifted Turicum`s stern, accelerating her longer than usual.
Turicum
hurled forward at 15 knots, then 16 knots, the wave still pushing
her stern
she kept gathering momentum and we hit 18 knots boat speed. What a
rush –
everybody on deck cheered in celebration of the new boat speed record
for
the 2012 Vic-Maui race. This is sailing as good as it gets :)
Over the
last couple days we noticed a more than usual loss of tension in
the
hydraulic system for the back stay. This was not dramatic, but got
progressively worse until last night we run out of hydraulic fluid and lost
all tension on the back stay. This resulted in the forestay not being
tensioned enough and thus swinging violently back and forward each time the
boat rolled in a wave. It was agonizing to watch the forestay and listening
to the banging sounds each time it swiped from port to starboard and
back.
John, Mort & Dave came up with a jury rig to stabilise the rig.
Dave had to
hang off the transom, secured by three different tethers and two
harnesses,
while mounting the jury rig. Meanwhile, we kept on thundering
down the
waves, relentlessly pushing Turicum to make more miles and
hopefully
narrowing the gap between us and Kinetic.
It was absolutely
amazing team work. All hands were on deck. Some were
sailing the boat,
others were assisting with the rigging work. We were still
averaging between
9 and 10 knots, pushing 14 and 15 knots in squalls during
the repair work.
Dave later said he had water lapping up his backside every
now and then when
a big wave overtook the boat.
We discussed taking the chute down before
starting the repair work, but the
situation was assessed to be under control
and safe to keep on sailing fast
while working on the rig. Never
Relent!
6 am, time for our watch to get some rest. Good
night!
Aloha.
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