Threading the Needle

Captain’s Log (afternoon)

Today is steel grey sky and ocean. It is blowing mid-20s, we’re on a beam reach, in 2-meter white horse seas. Double reef in the main, deep reef in the genoa. Sailing fast and comfortably, but the seas are building and we’re beginning to get more motion in the boat. The wind should come aft later this evening and hopefully settle out for a smoother ride.

Yes, we are threading the needle again between high and low pressure systems. Managing the weather has been a big part of this passage, which is kinda cool but a little nerve wracking for the captain. Also seeing a lot more comercial traffic as we approach shipping lanes.

We will probably make landfall next weekend or early the following week. Back to work for me… our backup water pump is acting up now…..

Chief Galley Officer Report (morning)

Shoutout thanks to everyone who sends greetings via the blog. Although we can’t respond directly it makes a positive impact on our day hearing from peeps.

A good morning. This was is pretty much my favorite time of the day. Rob is on watch, and everyone else is asleep after the night shift. I get to drink coffee, look at emails, and read a bit. At one time I thought I’d keep a journal but I’m 1) too inconsistent 2) I’m rather boring to listen too, and 3) I just can’t be bothered. Maybe in another life.

Hearing the wee bits of news and “what’s happening” in our country with racial violence and the emboldening of bullies I’m both glad to be at sea and ashamed of our world. When did compassion, empathy, and good will towards man get kicked to the curb? Come on people now! Enough.

On to ESTELLE
The winds have shifted! Hallelujah! And we are sailing! Winds are 10-15 knots from the East and we are happy for that. Yesterday we were at 2-6 knots of breeze coming directly at us. If not for motoring we possibly could have drifted backwards.

With 10-15 knots of breeze we are on a close reach and speeding along at 6+ knots- with one reef in the sail, another hallelujah! We’re moving again. From earlier blogs you may have learned that we had a major failure where the boom attaches to the mast. The “repair” continues to hold but we are reluctant to stress the system ergo the reef with these lower winds.

ESTELLE she’s doing well but the 4000 or so miles, especially the ones with rough seas are putting stresses on the ol girl. Yesterday day another turn buckle failed. The failure was on the top lift for the boom. (Clearly I don’t speak good sailor) but anyway this is the turn buckle that keeps the far end of the boom from sagging. Thus another repair.

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We have been incredibly fortunate that our failures and repairs have all happened in the daylight hours and in relatively calm seas. (See picture of repair- it’s the white line for those of us new to this weird world of water). And so we carry on. Truly an endurance event and not a race.

Now some words from the galley. For those of you who know me you know I’m not a baker. I’m known to make a boiled orange cake and ….. a boiled orange cake now and then but that’s pretty much it. In the last 24 hours we’ve had double chocolate brownies, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from scratch ( grating baby carrots is a pita) (pita= pain in the ass, I think that’s a nautical term?) and fresh banana chocolate chip muffins using the last of the apple bananas that were so graciously bestowed upon us from Elena and Danny’s trees in Kona. Yummy. We are having a sugar, gluten fiesta!

We balanced that off with salmon cakes, home made caper aioli, and sweet potato fries for dinner. I have been reluctant to make salmon cakes. Just couldn’t get my head around frying salmon from a can. Well let me tell you, they were fabulous! With finely chopped onion, red pepper and jalapeño, sautéed in a bit of seasoned olive oil and topped with the aioli ( love that word aioli it’s really just a fancy word for mayo – ha haha) we have all decided we want them again. This does make me ask about dungeons crab season? Has it started? I’m anxious for fresh crab cakes with a wee glass of Prosecco to accompany (sis, can you get on that?).

Enough blabber for now- cheers from the crew on ESTELLE! WB