San Diego’s heat wave having ended and GANNET’s cabin again endurable, I worked hard yesterday, unpacking, repacking, organizing and stowing.
My two clothes bags I moved to the cockpit to sort through. They are on the right hand side of the above photograph. Passage clothes and foul weather gear in the red bag on top; harbor clothes in the blue bag on the bottom. Except for the two sets of foul weather gear and a pair of sea boots, the contents of each are inside tied trash bags. Being leakless is not my natural state, and I prepare on the premise that everything inside GANNET could get wet.
Restowing required considerable lifting, all done against best practice. No legs. All arms and contorted back, which clearly indicated its displeasure as the afternoon wore on.
Among other things, I had realized the day before that I had stowed my hacksaw beneath the v-berth where I could not get to it quickly in case the mast went over the side. I told a friend that it might be easier to buy a new one than try to retrieve that one; but yesterday I tunneled down to it and placed it inside a big ziplock bag under the aft edge of the v-berth cushion within easy reach.
I also dug out GANNET’s never used solar shower bag.
At sea I bathe in salt water. Sometimes directly from the ocean; sometimes solar heated. No fresh water rinse. I have found that toweling off satisfactorily removes the salt.
Also no special salt water soap. Most shampoos and dish washing liquids lather in salt water. But last evening I remembered that in my follicly challenged state, I no longer use shampoo and don’t have much dish liquid on board. Shampoo has been added to my shopping list. I hope the sales clerk doesn’t ask questions.
The photo was taken with a wide angle lens and is somewhat distorted.
You may recall that I installed pad eyes on the main and partial forward bulkheads and that there is a line running between them to which I will tie the bags on each side so that everything doesn’t slide to leeward when GANNET heels. I will also tie each end of the black bag in the foreground, which contains freeze dry meals and other consumables, to the pad eyes, which I hope will prevent everything from falling into the Great Cabin.
In the very bow you can see a blue bag containing the Avon RedStart dinghy and to the left of it the white tarp I may use as a boom awning.
Coming aft is the top of a five gallon water jerry can, then a blue bag containing towels, Kleenex, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc. All in either zip-lock or trash bags.
The two shiny red bags in center and to port contain sextant and various waterproof boxes with iPad, handheld Garmin eTrex GPS, cables, the second Torqeedo battery.
The blue bag on top of the grey Sportaseat holds the asymmetrical spinnaker and its gennaker furling gear. It will probably be moved to the port pipe berth once we are underway.
The two white floatation cushions will be wedged around me to protect from hard edges when sitting at Central in the Great Cabin.
Just below them is the corner of a second water jerry can, which will be tied to the invisible but adjacent padeye.
The other jetty can has to be forward because of the electrical panel on the starboard side of the main bulkhead.
Two other five gallon jerry cans of water will reside inside the lee cloth on the port pipe berth.
With a rule of half a gallon of fresh water per person per day that is more water than I need. However, things can go wrong; and I have suffered desperate thirst twice: once when adrift after CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE pitch-poled and again during the twenty-six hour swim after I sank RESURGAM. Thirst is terrible. I don’t want to experience it again.
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GANNET’s Yellowbrick has been in operation for the past few days. The tracking page is: http://my.yb.tl/gannet
At present it is sending up positions at twelve hour intervals at 0000 and 1200 UTC. I may change that to six hour intervals. And I may bring the unit in to top up the charge before I leave.
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At sea I have no outside weather information and rely on observation of sea and sky and a barometer. But I do consult weather sites and apps before departure. Some of those still show south winds next week, but others, such as the WeatherMap+ and WeatherTrack apps, do not. WeatherTrack is an amazingly easy way to obtain and view GRIBs.
I’ll continue to watch; but unless something unexpected happens or appears, I sail Tuesday.
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From Richard in New Zealand came a friendly email and a link to a very enjoyable video of him sailing his home built Pathfinder sloop, CATORI, in the Bay of Islands. Some of you will recognize this as, except for the rig, a sister ship to Steve Earley’s SPARTINA, which he occasionally mentions when he isn’t writing about food. They are certainly pretty boats. And Richard’s video made me very happy that I’m sailing again for the Bay of Islands.
Thanks, Richard.
