CHASING THE WAVES WITH GREEN MEANIE

Day 7 – July 13

After a wonderful day of sailing in the sunshine yesterday the wind started
to get soft. The speed of Turicum travelling through the water dropped and
we were losing some miles to Kinetic and Red Heather, our closest
competitors. We got some more weather information and it looked like it
would be soft for a while.

In anticipation of the wind veering we hoisted Green Meanie, our workhorse
spinnaker at watch change just after 6 pm yesterday night. The first hour on
the wheel was painful with boat speeds as low as 4.5 knots. It was driving
with fingertips to keep the boat at least exactly on course. No stars
yesterday. It was pitch black and no visual references. We could not even
see the bow of the boat. It’s “flying” by instruments. A wobbling compass
and a wind indicator that nervously pitches from one side to another as
Turicum rolls in the light swell makes this no easy task.

All of a sudden we feel some rain drops, the wind picks up and Green Meanie
started to pull Turicum ahead. As the boat speed picked up, a smile appeared
on Gunnar’s face. The crew hustled down below to get the rain gear. It’s our
first squall, not dramatic, but enough to wake up Turicum from her lethargic
pace and once again chased the waves towards Hawaii.

Later the wind veered even more and we adjusted the sails accordingly. As
soon as Turicum found her rhythm, Gunnar who then went below deck to check wind
forecast and course, stuck his head up with a new course and we adjusted
sails accordingly.
6 am, Red Watch comes and deck and it’s time for us to catch some sleep.

The morale onboard is awesome as Mort continues to quote Monty Python lines
and we engage in huge belly laughs. John suspects these movies had a big
influence on Mort’s childhood. Watches often become philosophical as 4 grown
men huddle together in the cockpit on each watch and at times struggling for
a topic of conversation. John, educated us in the history of mankind and how
we evolved to gain our present day intelligence???

The temperature onboard is quite warm. We sleep with just shorts on and no
bed covers. Catching naps on deck is the best way to keep from the heat below
decks. Keep in mind all food is boiled on the stove top or a lasagne takes
1.5 hours in the oven. Also we run the engine twice a day for one hour to
charge batteries and to make fresh water. Don earned a rather nasty scrape
on his shin but just some lost flesh in the episode. Nothing to worry about and
all in all just the normal cuts and bruises occasionally suffered from a
typical day of sailing.

Other things that occupy our time include John sorting out the candy in the
treat bag and determining which candy we don’t like and which ones we will
fight for. Terry dropped his finger nail clipper in the head (toilet) and
had to go fishing with fingers and pliers. That was not fun and involved
much bleaching afterward.

Time for meat balls and spaghetti now before Red Watch goes on deck to
report for duty and Black Watch gets a few hours of sleep before the grave
yard shift.

Aloha!