Crossing the South Pacific
Part 3
Jim
September 18, 2005
41' 06S 93' 59 W
We are in our third day of the next gale. The outlook is for more of the same. We are getting knocked about with our storm sales up but the wind is behind us and we are making good progress.
Yesterday we ran with part of the reacher poled out and the jib to leeward with the trysail for balance. We shot along like a rocket until the winds picked up last night. At 4:00 AM we went out into the wild night to dropped the pole and put up roll out the storm jib.
We always wear a harness. As I was bringing lines back from the foredeck a wave game aboard and caught me. The tether held and the worst I got was a boot full of salt water.
We are getting used to 30 plus knots of wind. We have gone to 40 with the pole and jib rolled up to 20 % or less of their spread.
September 20, 2005
Near the coast of Chile
We can appreciate why sailors get drunk and go to whorehouses. Twenty eight days at sea is a long long time. We are just 500 miles from Canal Chaco, our entrance to Chile. We are counting every mile. The wind is down to 20 knots and blowing from behind. We have our two big headsails out, one on a pole and are getting some help from the waves that we surf down, hitting up to 12 knots.
We have not seen a ship or an airplane. Just birds, sky (mostly every shade of grey) and grey seas fill the horizon. We have the heater going most of the time-temps in the 40's and 50's. We read and study Spanish.
September 23rd
Puerto Montt, Chile
We arrived in Puerto Montt in the fading chilly twilight at 7:30 PM local time just a half hour ago. The last days were good down wind sailing. We did manage to put a hole in a sail when a squall came through and we had too much sail in the race to get to land before we went nuts, but overall, damage is much less than anticipated and the boat and the
crew did very well.
Total mileage is 5812, or a third of the globe at this latititude, elapsed time is 31 days. We had three gales and no fish! We have not yet cleared customs. We will worry about that tomorrow. Time for bed.
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