In the morning we hove to for about 30 minutes to fix a problem with the transom shower. "Heaving to" is how we "park" the boat in the ocean. We don't really stop, but we slow to about 2.5kts, in a fairly stable position and it feels like we've stopped with a fairly gentle motion.
After my shower two days ago we had large amounts of water entering the aft cockpit locker and our main fresh water tank was entirely emptied in about two hours. Connecting the dots, we feared a recurrence of a problem which caused the shower hose to be sucked into a steering sheave (block the cable runs through). Since we didn't want to give up our showers, and we needed to confirm there was no problem with the steering, we needed to empty and disassemble the transom locker to accurately diagnose and hopefully repair the problem. I steered while Fay, wearing her harness and clipped to the boat, kneeled on the swim platform and passed me the entire contents of the locker, then the panels of the locker itself (long since left unscrewed for easy access). All the while the ocean lapped up onto the swim platform as we slowly drifted backwards so that she was working while standing in about 6" of water.
Behind the panels she found that the hose was not in a sheave (good), but the hose connection to the boat's plumbing was loose and leaking (bad). A few twists with a pair of pliers and all was good. I handed her the locker parts and contents in the reverse order and she reassembled the locker and restored the contents. The whole drill took about 30 minutes. We tacked through the wind, eased the sails and we were off and rolling again.
In the afternoon our wish for lighter winds came partially true as the wind moved aft which reduced our apparent win and improved our angle on the seas, smoothing our our ride. But it was a short respite.
Just as Fay was handing up dinner about 5pm local time, a series of line squalls came through. The wind rose to 24-28kts and it began raining. We liked the fresh water rinse, but not the series of events. Over the next four five hours we had three different series of squalls. The wind would increase dramatically, we'd race off for 30 minutes, then the wind would drop just as quickly as it rose and shift way aft to directly behind the boat at only 8-10kts and leave us with the sails slamming around violently. I motored briefly between the 2nd and 3rd and then after the 3rd until they had passed through entirely. Of course nobody got any sleep during this time and there was tons of work with reefs going in and out, jib being rolled up and unfurled, etc. etc. Finally about 10:30 things settled down and we were sailing again.
Then about 4am, during Fay's sunrise watch, the fatigue took its toll and Fay hit the wrong button on the autopilot. The boat swung up into the wind, began to roll wildly and the sails flogged with a deafening sound. Continuing with the horror movie theme, Fay let out a scream for help that would have impressed any fan of the genre. I leaped from my sound sleep in terror, envisioning that Fay had gone overboard and I had to find her in the water in the dark (our worst fear). Fortunately she was in the cockpit and working together we had the boat straightened out in a few minutes, back on course and sails trimmed. The whole episode proved that our ear plugs would not prevent us from being roused in an emergency, and confirmed my doctor's repeated assessments that my heart was in good shape. I took about an hour to get back to sleep.
We did 194 miles yesterday and should pass the half way point later today.
