Stormy Night

Aloha 6th graders!

It's been a wild night...we had steadily increasing winds through yesterday, culminating in gale force winds that lasted through the night.  My first round on the sweep yesterday was pretty much butt steering: the sails were trimmed or set just right so that the canoe steers itself. I sat on the sweep for an hour just in case it needed a little correction, which it sometimes did. When the seas are calmer, we use the steering hoe like a rudder, by moving it from side to side. At other times, we wrap a rope around it to help control it and make steering easier.  We currently have our mizzen or back sail reefed twice and the main or front sail reefed once. Reefing a sail means that you bundle up the bottom edge and tie it down to reduce sail area. This brings our speed under control.  We have had steady winds of at least 25 kts (a knot is 1.1 mph) and last night we had a period of steady gusts over 35 kts. It is still cold - nighttime temperatures are easily in the 50s.  

When I wake up for morning watch, I am completely bundled up: 2 layers of pants, two shirts and a light jacket, ski socks, gloves and a hat and foul weather gear over all of that.  As the sun comes up, some of the layers usually come off. Yesterday and today, however, everything stayed on because the high winds produce larger swells which have the habit of breaking over the deck. Invariably someone gets a good drenching, and we are all pretty wet and salty on the outside by the time watch is over.  And then it's Milo time!  Fati has introduced me to the bad habit of having cereal mixed with hot Milo (like cocoa).  She, Herve and I have our group hug at the end of our watch and then we have hot Milo together.  We joked this morning, as the three of us sat in the rain, trying to wash our salty hair, that the three crazies ended up on the same watch.

We have had regular visits from many seabirds, especially albatrosses.  They're huge!  Maybe a four to five-foot wingspan.  Usually one or two circle us for a while in the mornings.  Yesterday, after I had gone down to sleep, I missed a pod of dolphins that wanted to play with us. They were dark grey on top and nearly white beneath.  Apparently, we weren't that exciting and they soon moved on.

Hikianalia is now out of radio range from us, an estimated distance of 20 miles.  They actually dropped one sail entirely and have the others reefed.  We are adjusting our course a little more to the south to try to close the gap.  It's good to be within radio contact range, and even better to maintain visual contact.  As we move out of this area of wind and rain, we're hoping we can re-establish contact.

Last night was also very dark, as the clouds were thick and low. Only about 11 pm did a few stars come out.  This morning, we had a period of about 5 minutes of sunshine, and the clouds have returned.  We are expecting the winds to die down over the next few days, and for Tuesday to be calm again...that's a long time away for the next bath!

Our current position is 33 degrees 59 minutes S, 173 degrees 9 minutes W.

More as we go!

Ms. Fuller