Day 12 Galapagos - Easter Island Passage

Saturday morning we woke to find a tangled mess hanging from the boom. The lazy jacks on the starboard side had broken sometime in the night. The lazy jacks are lines that run between the mast and boom and are used to collect the mainsail on the boom when lowering it. Lazy jacks, as the name implies, are not essential but make the tasks of furling or reefing the mainsail much easier. To repair them, we needed to thread a line through an eye on the mast just below the second spreader, 45 feet above the deck.

Keeping in mind that any movement of the boat at deck level is amplified up the mast, you can imagine that going up on passage is not necessarily a desirable task. Fortunately, the Sila crew is made up of people who "see the job, do the job." Or perhaps more accurately, we have one fearless member of the crew who loves heights.

Sending the Rabbit up the mast involved putting him in his harness, on a bosum's chair, with a topping lift and a line hanging off the bottom.While Pete took pictures and Porter steered the boat, I used a winch to haul Jack up and Christopher tended the down haul to reduce the swing and motion so that he would not swing wildly into the boom, stays or spreader which could be quite painful. Once up there, he threaded the new jack line and we lowered him back to the deck. Unfortunately, we had to send him up a second time because the line had twisted around one of the many stays and other lines on the starboard side of the mast.

What did Jack have to say about his job? While sporting a big grin, he said "Up there, my teeth hurt a little because I had to hold on to the boat with my hands and hold the jack line with my mouth. Looking around, the swells look a lot bigger than they actually are. Oh wow! You can see so much farther than you can on the deck, but there was nothing really to see except waves and clouds."

At this point on the passage, day 12 with at least four more days to go and light winds, the hours seem to blend together so sending the Rabbit up the mast was a highlight for sure. We continue along steadily and all is well. I think we are all looking forward to the possibility of stretching our legs on Easter Island. - Molly

Stats & Info:

0600 local (1200z) AUG 3 2014
Fix @ 21*08.2's 103*55.4'w
Heading windward/southeast of rhumb line as possible, XTE ±28nm to SE of the rhumb line
Wind 116ºT F4, variable F2-F4 last 48+ hours
33% clouds @ sunrise
No precip last 24 hrs
Long period large SW swell
Pressure 1019.3mb, range 1018-1021mb last 24 hrs.

24 HOUR RUN (06-06 Local, 12z-12z) ±107nm, mean speed of 4.5kn

460nm to go to Easter Island, @ 4.5 knots ±4d6h to go, guesstimated arrival Thursday afternoon, August 7th. Maybe a bit earlier if we get wind on Monday.