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Day 6 - Maine Passage

Hello from the North Atlantic, at XXXN, YYY W, en route to Cape
Cod's channel...

Wow, what a start to Day 6! We got into the fish we'd frozen
after our barbecuing it, having finally exhausted the chicken
and steak we'd started with, and I had the most wonderful
enormous Mackerel sandwich, while Lydia had a salad with her
Mahi-Mahi. Channeling the Campbell's soup folks, Mm, Mm, Good!
Ahh, the bounty of the sea! We are so blessed...

Immediately after dinner, we were entertained by an enormous pod
of porpoises, including some very young ones - not more than 3'
long - who stuck directly to the side of what we presume was the
mother(s). There must have been 20 dolphins playing next to us,
for probably more than 15 minutes. What a treat, as they did
their leaps and dives, along with the usual playing around in
front of the bow. Not quite as satisfying as a cigarette right
after dinner for Lydia, but a good second choice, she being no
longer a smoker!

But, the best was yet to come, right after dark. Our right-on
forecaster had said that we'd have some squalls with gusts in
the 30- 50 range, probably continuing through the night. Our
radar pointed out the first of them as a couple of very large
targets, and as we got a sudden lull, we figured they were soon
to arrive, so I shortened sails a bit in anticipation. Sure
enough, here they came, and the wind clocked around to the north
and built swiftly. Not much in the way of lightning, and not
even all that much rain, but what a ride it was. I stood at the
left of the helm where I could see the wind gauge, and used the
remote for the autopilot to constantly adjust as the wind ranged
between 25 and 40 knots. We were entirely surrounded by yellow
for the entire 6-mile range I had the radar set to. (I didn't
see any point in looking further out as we were already
completely enveloped!)

I ran down a bit, to a broad reach - almost a run - in the
gusts, and back up to a beam reach when the winds dropped back
to the 20s. Flying Pig was quite a lady, as, during the
constant mid-20s, when we stayed for minutes at a time on the
beam reach, she stood up to about 10 degrees of heel, other than
when a wave rocked her further, and we might as well have been
out for a relaxing daysail. Totally comfortable, and with our
enclosure, even dry. While it was a constant management of the
angle of attack, it was otherwise a very lovely time, and the
most fun sailing I've had for probably a year. Not at all "Mr.
Toad's Wild Ride" but very entertaining, none the less :{))

Radar soon showed the largest of the activity to have left us,
but the winds didn't die (well, they never "died") as the rain
departed. The stars were out, but so was Aeolus, and we were
quickly in the classic "15-20, with gusts to 25" set. By this
time, I'd rolled out the canvas again, and managed to find the
balance point which had her self- correcting, going down in the
lulls and pointing up in the gusts.

The oddity on this period - which lasted for hours - was that
the wind constantly cycled between 15 and 20 knots. Up and down
and back up again. Our relative wind went from 140 to 100 and
back again as Flying Pig self-corrected, pretty as you please,
and for the most part, again, Flying Pig stood up, rarely
exceeding 10 degrees of heel other than wave-induced leanings
(which also brought her upright in equal measure, of course).
Throughout it all, we maintained a high-6 to mid-7 knot speed.
Overall, however, as the wind backed around a bit, we worked our
way back to just shy of 70 degrees west while charging ahead
north. Chris had suggested we be very close-hauled, anyway, as
we'd need the westerly set a bit later on, so that wasn't of
import. However, our track on the chartplotter looks a bit
drunken :{)) I took consolation in seeing the tracks during the
America's Cup races which showed the best helmspeople in the
world making a very wiggly track as they sought out the best
wind. We're not racing here, and have the luxury of lots of sea
room, which allowed us to run with it in the early stages.
Those of you following along on the SPOT share page (but it only
shows a 24 hour period, so if you see this more than that much
later, you'll not see this bit of entertainment!) will see a big
bubble to the east, later running back to the west...

I'm still figuring out sailmail, with frequent occurrences of
dozens of attempts to find a persistent connection being the
norm. However, at 3AM today, I managed to find a goodie,
receiving and sending and replying to incoming mails, all in the
same session. However, to get there, I had a half-dozen
connections which failed before the first bits of data arrived
or were sent. My speeds are typically in the same range as the
oldest of the modems, whereas mine is the most current software.
I'm presuming that this is a product of the lousy propagation of
high-frequency communications present worldwide, but it's still
frustrating. My attempts to communicate over the net each
morning with Chris Parker rarely even hear him, let alone he my
calls, so I'm grateful that he's accommodated me in this
particular leg by emailing me what we'd otherwise have spoken of
(my subscription being SSB, not either stand-alone or combined
email). However, at the rate we're going, this passage will be
over soon, and perhaps I can get some professional help (YES, I
KNOW - I've needed professional help for a very long time,and
not just on SSB matters!) with my rig once we arrive in
Portland...


L8R

Skip, Lydia, and Portia, the sea cat

Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at
www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or
http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power
to make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."