Day 10
It was quite a lurchy day as we “metronomed” through the seas today, wing-on-wing. The winds are still holding steady at 20 knots E-SE. While the height of the seas has decreased to about 3+ meters, they were a bit peaky, and every now and then one of the breaking crests would decide to clobber the side of the boat and flood the cockpit. Nothing dangerous, just inconvenient. For example, as I was preparing Taz’s morning oatmeal, the bag of frozen blueberries flung itself across the galley and opened in a shower of buckshot. I frantically tried to rescue as many blueberries as I could back into the bag as they rolled back and forth across the counter and onto the floor.
Taz likes to take “copty (helicopter) rides” around the cabin. As we hold him aloft and fly him around he names and points at everything he sees. “Porthole, waves, deck, waves, water, sailboat, GPS, ‘nother porthole–two!” He places his toy cars on the floor and they take off back and forth, as the boat rolls. I’m amazed at his ability to remain steady in a seaway. He rotates his torso and subconsciously anticipates the next wave, keeping his upper body steady vertical. He’s a natural.
Our boat speeds are good and we’re averaging about 150-mile days now. With our mileage to destination down into the 500s, we are on the home stretch! The last few days are always the longest for me, the big count-down. I’m just hoping these winds hold steady for us. It would be great to at least make it within 200 miles of Rodrigues, before we might have to motor-sail. We have been very fortunate so for on our 1,500 mile-long tack and counting!
Last night Kelsey fine-tuned the Monitor course and sail trim, and she must’ve done a perfect job. For the past 24 hours, the boat has been pegged directly on course, not deviating even more than 1/10th of a mile either side of the rhumb line. I’ve never seen anything like it, even when motoring under autopilot. We didn’t touch the helm or sails all day long, as Privateer winged along, straight as an arrow.
