Marshalls to Alaska Day 19: Well that was a big wave!

Greetings!

Our laptop spent last night in the chart table, so I am composing the Day 19 update in a brightly lit saloon surrounded by people, which feels quite unusual.

We had an unwelcome guest in the cockpit last night in the form of a big wave that flooded the cockpit floor with 2-3" of water and splashed some of itself over the top of the companionway boards, down onto Max on the starboard bench and onto the chart table.

We were in 3-4 m seas and 25-28 kts of wind when the wave hit, but we hadn't had much water over the deck at all; however, once this one came aboard, we didn't take any more chances: the laptop was wiped down and stowed away! I spent the rest of the watch hardly needing to adjust the sails, but maintaining a constant vigilance and presence in the cockpit anyway. I was also glad that we maintain as standard practice to put the companionway boards across as soon as we head off-shore, or the mess downstairs would have been much worse.

My dad brought us some Nova Scotia Fishing gloves when he came to see us in NZ last year. I had started wearing some for warmth the day before yesterday, but they really came into their own when I had to coil all the soaking wet lines after the wave sloshed through the cockpit and made a soup of everything.

Now that you know the reason for the slight delay in correspondence, I will back up a little. By yesterday morning, we were in 3+ m seas and still heading East on a starboard tack to avoid the gale, but wind shifts were beginning to head us a little south. The cold front had passed with only a change in barometric pressure and some rain, but without the big gusts and squalls we had been bracing for. Shortly after noon, we decided to gybe onto a port tack to head closer to Dutch Harbor, as the weather maps were telling us that we would miss the worst of the wind and be in the same sea state.

Even in the big winds/seas our gybe went very smoothly, despite being a multi-step process. Johnathan was our on-watch kid, so he sheeted in the main while I let off the preventer. I then returned the port preventer pigtail to the boom (connected by a bungie on a hook to stay in place) and returned to the cockpit. With the main tightly sheeted and the vang very short, Max executed the turn from the helm and handled the genoa sheets. As the boom crossed to the new downwind side, Johnathan eased it out so there would be less shock loading on all the gear. Once the main was safely across, I clipped in on the starboard side and secured the pigtail to the preventer line with the soft-shackle that we have sewn to the end of the line, and we eased out the sheet and took up the slack on the preventer. We had a bit of a spiderweb of lines on the starboard side as we had a genoa sheet, a running sheet, genoa furler, and preventer all heading back to the cockpit. It sometimes takes a bit of doing to make sure that they all run through three-dimensional space without chafing on each other!

The boom "prevented" solidly forward.  This way, with vang pulling down (not seen in the photo), the sheet pulling aft and the preventer pulling forward the boom does not move.  Also, if we have an accidental gybe the boom should not go flying across the boat wreaking all sorts of havoc.

Somewhat of a crisscross of lines: The green line is the running sheet, the blue is the furling line and the red is the preventor plus you can see the flat strapping which is our new shiny jacklines (the safety line we clip into when outside of the cockpit) .  The slack black line at the top of the photo is our regular genoa sheet not loaded at this point as we are using the running sheet.

After several days of heading east, it felt so good to point at Dutch Harbor!! The boat motion was noticeably more comfortable when we turned, as we were at a better angle to the waves. As the seas built, and night was coming on, we made the decision to turn further downwind to a broad reach so that we would be taken the waves more on the stern than the beam; this was both safer and more comfortable for everyone overnight in the dark. The motion below was still pretty exaggerated (picture the room you are in swaying back and forth every 3-5 seconds, with a lurching lift thrown in every once in a while for good measure) but these conditions are easier to tolerate when the boat is going in the right direction!

Even in big seas, some maintenance just needs to happen right away. In this case, I had noticed a small gap between the zipper and the clear fabric in one of the rain enclosure panels, where some of the stitching had let go. After scratching my head for a minute as to how I could sew it while standing in place and hanging on for dear life (the math of one hand for the boat, one hand for the speedy stitcher, and one hand for the needle just didn't compute), I realized that I could just unzip it from the bimini and hold it on my lap. This struck me as thinking 'inside the box' (ie in the cockpit)! Gap sewn, I was ready to hang the panel when we noticed not one but three more areas where the thread was letting go, so down it came again. This time, Victoria took over the speedy stitcher, and I went to see about dinner. Oddly enough, her preference was to be in the fresh air of the cockpit sewing over being down in the galley! I was just glad to be in the warmth :) We had the entire rain enclosure re-stitched last year in NZ, but I think perhaps that panel was overlooked.

Rather a juggling act with everything trying to jump or slide off the counter or stove.

As I mentioned, I spent my night watch huddled in the cockpit with a keen eye on the combination of wind speed (averaging 25 kts but ok to 28 kts), boat speed (generally in the 7's but think about reefing if it heads into the 8's for any amount of time), and wind angle (set at 155 deg true, but inexplicably jumped to 168 deg when the big wave hit us, so I kept watching for it to do something squirrelly again); I also maintained a constant listening ear for the sound of the waves to be steady. As it turned out, I only had to reef the genoa a couple of times, and otherwise the sails stayed as they were at the beginning of my watch.

The kids elected to have a cozy movie night on the aft bunk, which I thought was much better use of Johnathan's time (keeping Benjamin company) than being on watch with me in the cold. When the wave came over the side, I was especially glad that he hadn't been lying on the bench beside me! With the seats wet, I found that the cold transferred much more through my foulie bottoms; I finally began to feel a little warmer only when I added another layer under my jacket, wrapped myself in a waterproof silver reflective tarp, and made a mug of hot chocolate! Of course, this is simply just a description of my reality, and not a complaint :) I am grateful that our boat sails so well in these conditions.

Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2019-07-01 4:40 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 42°26.76'N 175°57.40'W

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