A race to the finish.

As I write this It is Monday afternoon and we hopeful that we are less than 24 hours from making landfall in Bermuda. 

There is a nice, if light, breeze on the beam but with only my small jib and main but we cannot risk going even a little bit slower so we must continue to run the engine.

After posting several sunrises, how about this sunset from last night?  The sun was setting under a huge thunderhead cloud.  To me it looks a bit like the goose that laid the golden egg. 

Later that evening, the cloud came over us and dropped some rain but fortunately, it was not particularly windy and no lightening.

And speaking of clouds that look like an animal.  I cannot quite decide what this one reminds me of.  Whatever it is, it looks happy.  Hmm…

I have not turned off the motor for several days now except to address a bit of an “issue” last evening around dusk, when the belts on the power take-off that run the large alternator to charge the battery along with enough electricity to run the forward AC, began to disintegrate.  

After thousands of miles aboard Pandora, I can immediately tell if something is not quite right and when I heard a rumbling and a different vibration I took a look.  Seeing one of the tandem belts shredding itself, tossing pieces everywhere confirmed that I had to shut the engine down.

As with just about every critical component, I have spares and in this case, enough belts to replace both twice more.  Getting them off and replacing them with new ones was not easy but as I had done the job in the past and was able to complete the job in about a half hour.  Having said that, working on a hot engine while the boat was rolling in windless conditions was not fun but with Dave holding a light so I could see what I was doing, mission accomplished and we were soon underway.

By the time I had the job completed, I was dripping with sweat.

One of the frustrating things about passage making is that the wind, while often consistent for days on end, can often be very uncooperative and last night as a particular low point.

For much of yesterday we had a decent breeze that allowed us to motor sail but as the sun went down the breeze shifted to our stern and dropped to less than 5kts.  As we motored forward at about the same speed, that meant that we had a slight headwind, slowing us further.   It was excruciating.

I took in the jib but left the main up with the hope of getting a bit of a lift from the sail.  However, that was not to be and for much of the night the sail just flapped slowly, and we crawled along at less than 5kts. 

Fortunately, later in the morning a 10kt breeze came up on our beam and we are now motor-sailing along at a good clip.  There is almost enough wind to sail but not quite without the big code zero.   The lack of a proper light air sail has made it necessary to run the engine for an additional 24 hour or more.

And, speaking of that sail, when we arrive in Bermuda, I will deliver it to a sailmaker with the hope of getting it repaired.  However, as I expect that it will be windy when we arrive, we decided to take it down this morning when the wind was light. 

Given the sun damage to the aft end of the sail, I was very concerned that it might catch on something as we dropped it on deck and receive even more damage.

After about a half hour of strategizing on how to get it down and folded up, we decided to slowly motor slightly off the wind and to drop it onto the leeward deck.  George tended the aft end of the sail and Dave clawed the sail onto the deck as I lowered it. 

This is a big sail, about 60’ tall and about 35’ on the foot.  A lot of fabric to muscle onto the deck without it ending up in the water.  When pulling down a big sail, if a gust of wind catches it and you hold on too tight, it can jerk you right off the deck. 

Well, we got it done, stuffed it into a sail bag and stowed it in the forward head, where it will live until we take it to the sailmaker tomorrow afternoon.

So, that is done and there is one less thing to worry about.

Getting that sail fixed is critical as without it we will have to motor a lot more or go unreasonably slowly on the run to the Azores when the wind is light, perhaps adding days to a trip that is likely to take more than two weeks, even with good conditions. 

The difference in an average speed of six knots vs four can make a big difference.

2,000 miles at an average speed of 6kts is 14 days.   The same distance at 5kts is three days longer.

As it is, we are estimating that the trip will take between 13-17 days and to not have a sail that can handle light wind would put us at a major disadvantage.

To that point, I estimated that the lack of the code zero sail on this run has cost us upwards of an extra half day or more.

That might not sound like a lot but there are often deadlines where you “have to get there” to avoid bad weather and the difference of a knot or even a half knot, can mean the difference of hitting bad weather or not.

This passage is a case in point, as if we do not get to Bermuda by mid-morning on Tuesday, we may be hit by strong headwinds that could cost us another day at sea.

Some say that watching a boat sail is like watching grass grow but having good sails and wind is like a lawn with no rain verses rain and lots of fertilizer.  You cannot see it grow but it gets tall fast.

So, here we are at noon on Monday and we positively must get to Bermuda by mid-morning tomorrow, so we motor.

I think that we can make it based on the wind that we have now, but after last night, inching along with no wind, who knows.

As we approach Bermuda it has turned into a race to the finish if for now other reason than to avoid running into major headwinds. 

I suppose that is a metaphor for life, avoiding headwinds.

After a few days in Bermuda, off again for the Azores, that destination is 2.5x farther than this leg, nearly 2,000 miles.

Let us hope we have good wind and no major broken stuff.

But first I need to get to Bermuda, soon…