As you know, we had quite the day on Wednesday when our spinnaker got all twisted, and we had to take it in. Well, that night, on our 1800h watch, all was going well until a sudden gust of wind slammed into us, throwing us off course. As I tried to get us back on course, I heard a huge BANG which really startled me. A shackle on our vang (an arm that helps support the main sail) had broken. Of course, we called up our Captain, Cress, who just nonchalantly went over and repaired it immediately.
I think I was more concerned about it than he was.
Next morning, again during my watch, Cress appeared and immediately noticed that the shelf (almost the bottom section) of our main sail was torn, almost from one end to the other. Well, said our Capt. stoically, I guess we'll just reef (shorten) the sail in and carry on. I couldn't help wondering if he was feeling as I was, (like, what next??); but he good naturedly said, "There's a sailor's adage, 'If you aren't breaking something, you aren't sailing'". But I suppose it wouldn't do to throw in
the towel and cry -- we still have more than half-way to go to Darwin.
But I'm definitely the "glass half-full" kind of person. And our spirits were lifted considerably later that morning. As I was scanning the horizon for any sign of oncoming traffic, I thought I saw a fin in the water. Then nothing. Then another fin, and again nothing. Hmmm, I thought, must be my imagination. But then I definitely saw something large swimming toward us, just below the surface of the water and called out, "There's something in the water!". At this point a school of dolphins
surfaced and swam all around us. What an exciting sight! They swam right up to our boat before veering off, then came right back to us again and again. This show lasted several minutes, and we must have seen at last 50 dolphins. I felt that surely they must be the harbingers of better luck!
Later that afternoon, we agreed to have our "half-way celebration" a day early, as we expect to be at the first of many reef passages later today, and we won't be able to be frivolous! We all went above decks, dressed as pirates, surprising Cress at the helm. We started with appies, COLD beer, and a whole box of Pringles!! That was followed by a wonderful roast veal (Dennis), beans in mushroom sauce (Jan), and wild rice (Rita). Now what could be better than that?
We are all a bit nervous about our watches over the next couple of days, but we'll be extra, extra diligent and I'm sure all will end well!
Rita
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