May 24

In the wee hours of the morning, the wind speed drops.  The seas don't and the boats rolls and lurches around more than usual.  Without the pressure from the wind, the sails go soft and start flogging.  The wind vane self-steering system loses control of the boat's heading and we soon have quite a racket.  Lynne wakes me up and I go to the cockpit to hand steer the boat back on course.  The lines connecting the wind vane to the steering wheel have become slack again.  There is no more take-up to easily reduce the slack in the lines.  I let the autopilot steer for half an hour while I undo the knots and lashing connecting the two parts of one of the lines.  I make the loop in the bowline knot on one part larger, shortening that line.  Then reconnect the lines.  It takes several tries until I get the loop just the right size to allow the slack to be reduced and still have enough line left to lash the lines together.

In the morning, we shake the reef out of the mainsail to get a bit more boat speed while rolling up most of the headsail to minimize its flogging.  The wind speed and direction fluctuates, requiring frequent attention.  In the afternoon, a big squall rolls over the boat with winds up to 28 knots and pelting rain.  I roll up the headsail and put a reef back in the mainsail.  Eventually, the squall passes, but the wind is up from before the squall, and we are moving toward the Marquesas at a brisk rate.  There is a saying, "When faced with choosing among several alternatives, subsequent events will reveal the correct choice.  Often, the wind has lessened in the evening, so I do not go to the second reef in the main before dark.  Wrong choice.  The wind gradually builds through the night and SUNRISE is "smoking".  She is handling the speed nicely even though overpowered.  But this is not the prudent thing to do, as it puts a huge amount of strain on the sails and rigging.  (SUNRISE is not a race boat, and needs to take us all the way to New Zealand by November.  We can not tolerate any major breakages out here.  There is no AAA or tow truck.  If you call for help, you are usually removed from your boat with what is in your pocket and the boat is abandoned.  Eventually, most abandoned boats are not found until they wash ashore on the windward side of an island somewhere to be demolished by the waves.)  Sometimes the headsail flutters causing SUNRISE to shudder.  I get up again and roll up most of the headsail, leaving out a scrap to help balance the sail plan a bit.  SUNRISE has "a bone in her teeth" and is "heading for the barn" with 500 nautical miles to go.