A grey and windless afternoon. An occasional creak from “Ventura.” The sea is the lifeless color of steel. Even the birds have given up. I am alone and Panama is 10 million miles away.
The wind has been unusual the past day. I left Cabo in perfect wind, a beam reach of about 15 knots. “Ventura” loved it and we clicked off 6.5 or 7 miles each hour. I thought I might reach a 150-mile day, if only the wind would hold. Alas, not today. The wind weakened last night, then freshened from the southwest this morning. Just after dawn I was beating south into 15 or 18 knots of wind. The wind almost never lows out of the south or southwest here this time of year. The swell was from the northwest and the wind waves were from the south-southwest. It was a sloppy, bumpy mess. It reminded me of sailing in the Baltic, except it is warmer here.
The beat to windward was a reminder of other long tropical windward days sailing back from Hawaii. “Ventura” has low freeboard and acts like a submarine in those conditions. Water washes over the deck. I had forgotten to turn a dorade vent over the head, so water splashed in destroyed one roll of toilet paper. That’s why I took six. During the pounding (and a fairly light pounding it was), a shackle unscrewed itself. It held my “Dutchman Boom Brake” which hangs from the boom at the vang bail and acts as a preventer and keeps the boom from knocking me unconscious in an accidental gybe. I had forgotten to tape that shackle closed. All cotter pins and shackles are taped or wired shut on “Ventura.” But I had forgotten that one, so of course it worked its way loose eventually. Even though the wind was only 18 knots or so, it was enough force to deform the shackle. Since I don’t have a spare of that size, I spent an hour this afternoon trying to figure out how to bend it back and make it align again. I had more than enough time, of course, so eventually I wrestled it back into alignment and it hands on the boom again.
By noon the wind had almost completely died. The weather guru thinks that by tomorrow night I will have a moderate northerly wind and that should hang in there for at least a few days. So his advice is to just try to work my way south or southeast in this very light air for another 24 or 36 hours until the wind fills in. So I have the spinnaker up. I have tried dropping the mainsail completely so it would not blanket the spinnaker. I think I am making a couple of knots boat speed now.
I bought some cans of food in Cabo without being sure what it was. I opened one today, something called “Chilorio.” It’s some kind of shredded meat. I suppose it would be good mixed with something else. I bought it in the human food section, not the pet food section, so it must be OK to eat. I think I have five more cans. I have other food, so maybe these cans will make it all the way to Panama.
“Ventura” is creeping along, maybe making 3 knots now. This kind of weather makes me sleepy. Maybe I can sleep my way to Panama.
David