I’m feeling much better now, thank you very much, and Isabel seems to be on the mend as well. Pneumonia is no laughing matter and for most of the past week I’ve been utterly useless, lying quietly and reading, napping, or taking gentle strolls to one of the local magasins for victuals. A couple days ago I took my last antibiotic pill, and the past 3 days or so I’ve had enough energy to begin attacking all the projects necessary to get us ready for the next big passage – this time to Hawaii. The first order of business was the outhaul. The eye splice in the double braid dyneema section that attaches to the main sail began pulling out on our passage from Gambier, but hey – I keep spare stuff on board and managed to whip up a replacement a couple days ago. This one won’t work its way loose because I used a Brummel locking splice method. It took a while to remove the old assembly but it’s all back together and tested now.
Yesterday I built some dyneema loops and assembled a couple other parts, did a bunch of fit checks which involved raising and lowering the main numerous times, but now we’ve got a quickie install reef #1 kit, so no more kabuki dance on the cabin top in rough weather while I’m trying to lash a solution in place. That’s a big step forward! In the meantime, we’ve been taking longer and longer walks to monitor our own health, stretch out after so many days aboard, and collect victuals for our upcoming passage. Isabel has been preparing and freezing passage meals, and along the way we’ve scored 8 kilos of yellow fin tuna fresh at the dock. That’s sushi-grade fish that’s still quivering when we buy it at about $2.50/pound. Not everything here seems expensive. Isabel has been vacuum sealing meal size portions and slowly filling the freezer with insanely tasty tuna, and we’ve been eating sashimi and poke, but haven’t even gotten around to cooking any yet. Maybe tonight we’ll sear some tuna steaks really rare on the grill.
Over the next several days I’ll continue to replace chafed dyneema loops that capture the main sheet blocks and also look for any other flaws in our running rigging. If the blasted Southern swell ever calms down in this bay Isabel will haul me to the mast head and I’ll give all the standing rigging a thorough look. Yes I did it just before we left Gambier, but 900 miles of hard sailing later it makes sense to look again, as the next passage will be well over 2000 miles of hard sailing, and some of that could get rough. There’s nothing worse than a major malfunction at sea, and preventative maintenance is the way to mitigate the risk of any disaster. We’re watching the weather daily and while a series of nasty lows has been moving West to East North of Hawaii and influencing the weather in the passage route, things do seem to be settling down. Historically April and May are the best months for this particular passage, and we’ve definitely had a look at what Jimmy Cornel has to say about the routing and weather.
I forgot to mention some of the delights of the Marquesas. As we were passing Oa Pou, still about 30 miles South of Nuku Hiva, a big pod of spinner dolphins joined us, offering a spectacular show complete with aerial leaps and rolls for nearly a half hour. The day after we anchored a collection of 4 big reef manta rays came tooling around the boat, and a couple days later a single one returned, getting as close as a meter from the hull as he (or she) trolled the nutrient rich waters here.
Yesterday we found fresh lettuce to buy! The last time we ate lettuce was in Hao, months ago, and it’s crazy to realize one has a craving for a big salad. Now we can scratch that itch. Oh, and the cell system provides LTE data speeds and the wifi we can purchase at Yacht Services is blazing fast. We’re actually working on our taxes, downloading podcasts, and catching up on our personal business!
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