[p]pjr4728
[s]
pos: 01 46.646n 118 32.695w
sp: 6.0
h: 255m
w: 11kn 135T, cloud 2/8 (15%), SS 1.0mSSW
d: 04/07/20 10.00 GMT-0700
Well, to paraphrase just about every football commentator on the planet, this was a week of two halves, in more ways than one!

After beating our previous PB on Day 14, we nudged it a little higher on Day 16 and walloped it on Day 17. All thanks to that friendly Westerly current that continued to head in our direction. As the current petered out towards the end of the week however, so did our glorious mile-eating. For the past 36hrs we have been crossing a Nbound current and this, at 1kn+ against, together with light winds has really slowed us...Albeit hopefully temporarily, as we should shortly move into a SW current and a better wind forecast, that will take us across the Equator and the doldrums.

Late on 30th June and still 1,900nm from our destination, we did have a bit of an 'Oh Bother' moment to shake us out of complacency, when I looked up from the cockpit to see the boom too was in two halves! (The boom is a big metal pole about 6inches in diameter that sticks out at right-angles to the mast and holds our mainsail out). It didn't seem to make much sense as we had been trucking along on a beam reach (wind at 90 degrees to our heading) in fairly benign wind and seas, with only moderate rolling and not much strain.
The boom had suffered a severe break where an attachment called a boom vang is made..and only didn't separate because of an old sail track still riveted along the top (we now have a loose-footed main) and the spare #1 batten I keep in there!. Looks like simple fatigue cracking, although there is evidence of galvanic corrosion where the stainless steel plate attaches to the aluminimum boom via rivets here (which were ripped out). However, this attachment is also where we have the permanently-rigged gybe preventers we inherited (and love!!) and cumulative strain may be the culprit, as having these attached to the end of the boom apparently causes less stress (overall).

Anyway, fortunately we'd hung onto a 4.5m long bamboo pole we'd cut down a Shelter Bay, back in the day when we thought we may be heading S to the SE trades and want to be running under double genoas! Luckily the boom gooseneck (where it attaches to the mast) seems fine and that held up the 1/3 nearest the boom and the other 2/3 was supported at the other end by the topping lift, with just a small matter of 40 degrees separating the two!. It was just a case of jacking the 2 heavy parts back together (kinda straight-ish) with the main halyard, and using the bamboo as a brace to suspend the 2 parts from (so we can still use all the boom fittings) and bound it all together with webbing straps screwed to the bamboo, together with copious lashings! It's held so far for over 3 days and 450nm, which is, frankly, a bit surprising!
Tbh it's not really such a drama, as we have lots of other options should this Macgyver effort fail (using our metal spinnaker pole in place of bamboo, rigging ti-sail or loose-footed jib in place of main, running on just headsails etc etc).

Last night we had the excitement of seeing our first boat for 14 days, a Chinese fishing vessel that AIS helpfully told us would come within 0.1nm in 40mins if we didn't change course. Needless to say we did.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to a much more welcome encounter, with our friend Thomas, currently sailing solo aboard his beautiful Halberg Rassey 43. He's been decimating our small fleet with his speed, having started a week after Windchase!!. A little further behind Patea is hitting her straps, as is Spacegrazer a little further behind. In just one example that it's not just Windchase but most yachts that seem to undergo at least some 'drama' or another on passage, they nearly won the Darwin Awards, ironically by crashing into Isla Darwin in the Galapagos! Up close taking photos, their boat was the lee of the island with full sail up. Then the proximity of the sheer rock wall in front of them affected the wind dynamic and instead of blowing them off the island, pushed them towards it. Fortunately the engine started first pull and allowed them to reverse off, with less than a boat length to spare.

Anyway, enough from me..We are all well aboard! Our estimated arrival (Nuka Hiva) is now around the 15th July...Fortuitously this is the day that French Polynesia had announced it was officially reopening its borders, so we are fairly hopeful that no quarantine will be imposed, yay!

TTFN,
S/V Windchase

Week 3 stats:
Day Latitude Longitude DOGnm Last Cum Av
24 Hrs Spd
15 28/06/2020 02° 00.3N 103° 15.3W 1845.3 163.7 358 5.15
16 29/06/2020 01° 56.9N 106° 24.6W 2036.1 190.8 382 5.33
17 30/06/2020 01° 59.2N 110° 08.2W 2260.9 224.8 406 5.57
18 01/07/2020 01° 57.1N 112° 32.3W 2406.6 145.7 430 5.60
19 02/07/2020 01° 55.2N 114° 56.6W 2552.3 145.7 454 5.62
20 03/07/2020 01° 54.0N 116° 46.6W 2663.0 110.7 478 5.57
21 04/07/2020 01° 46.6N 118° 32.7 2770.4 107.4 502 5.52

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