After four months of waiting in Bali to come home, Conversations at last untied herself from the dock, motored out through all the Bali water borne holiday traffic, put up her sails headed south back out into the trade winds and turned west.
And here we are, dangling along at 7, 8 knots plus. The morning is bright and clear with 2 meter seas sunning blue under the morning sun as 15 knots of breeze builds white caps. I have a full main up, and a hard sheeted genoa to steady the roll as we move comfortably along on a very broad starboard reach.
Its just the two of us this time. It seems like such a bloody big boat for just me after all the friends and family who have been a part of this adventure from San Francisco. But otherwise it feels very familiar, as you would expect. The big difference is that there is only one watch! Last night I spent the night awake dodging fishing trawlers as I made my way further from shore and two squalls roused me from my nodding in the cockpit and showered me with sweet fresh water after a day of sweating. At midnight, the temperature was still 32 C and it was way too hot below for anything but to grab water and a bite to eat.
Just before sunset, I passed right between two humpback whales making their way east as I went west. The first one passed by close on the port side. At 50 yards or so away, he didn't pay me any attention that I could tell. But the second one passed right alongside the starboard rail and rose out of the water almost touching the boom to eye ball me as we passed in a split second. Snorting as he sounded. I could smell the fish he had for dinner (just kidding about the fish smell) But otherwise, that was a first! What magnificent creatures. As I watched them off the transom, one of them did a full breach and crashed back in the water with such force I could hear him a 100 yards away. A few hours later, in the dark of the night, dolphins came to play in our wake. What a wonderful night.
Had a minor tangle with the headsail roller last night, failing to get the sail fully furled, but it was too rough and dark to deal with so I sorted it all out this morning. Several times during the night, I got out the flashlight, clipped on my harness and went forward to the bow to make sure it wasn't getting worse. Otherwise the boat is doing great. And, I have finally mastered the spinnaker poles. I can do a solo launch and take down by harnessing them with the foreguy and toping lift before swinging them from the mast (yes we have two of the monsters and they are dangerous if I let them swing in the seaway!)
I am 20 hours into the passage. Looks like Day one will be about 130 NM, pretty good considering the light coastal winds I had to work through.
My thought for the day has to do with discipline and habit. As I head into my first solo offshore passage, I am appreciating how much habit carries me through the chores of sea keeping and my anxiousness for managing this big boat on my own so far away from help. I had great teachers, especially one old New England gentleman and captain, who taught me the importance of doing things 'right' so when things otherwise go 'wrong', as they always do, we are already ahead of the curve and not behind it. I learned from him how habit, that wonderful human automatic pilot, is built and maintained from just a little discipline, especially important in the beginning. Our habits keep our lives ship shape; they give us the chance to really experience our lives from in front of the curve, rather than behind it. To others, it looks like discipline, but its really just habit after just a short while.
Would love to hear from anyone, comments, questions, even advice! Email me at ve7cxw@winlink.org - no attachments or other non essentials please, this stuff is down loaded over the ham radio at about 10% of the speed of dial up!
TTFN
Cresswell
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