Day 8: Repair Men

4/24/2010, Saturday, 1700 Zulu, Lat. 22 13.9N, Long. 86 59.4 W, Day 8

Today we are finally into some real sailing. This is what I signed up for. 22 knots of wind, 6 foot seas, boat is going 7 knots with a single reef and a reduced jib. We are currently passing Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula 25 nm on our port with a heading of 295 M (magnetic). Galveston is about 580 nm north of us. The reason we are not sailing directly to that heading right now, is to anticipate this cold front this evening and the wind will shift to the north. The wind now is coming from the east. With the impending wind shift, it is smart to do some “westing” and then “northing” with the shift and have an easier time fetching our mark.

We punched through Yucatan Channel with gusto this morning at 0800 and by 0900 we were going 10.5 knots SOG with over the water speed of only 5.5 knots. That means we have finally hopped onto the current that Commander Weather has suggested and it is almost doubling our speed. This is always a sailor’s delight when one can get on the current to one’s favor.

We did a gybe to port in order to go more west and it took us an hour to execute the maneuver. At one point Terry and I were both on the foredeck to change the position of the whisker pole and had to let ‘Auto’ do the driving. Yes, ‘Auto’ a fourth member of our crew, and is not a car, but a very smart piece of work. He is 10 times smarter than Montie but sucks up precious amps on boats. More about Auto and his relative, Data and Wind some other time….

Yesterday was an uneventful day (or so I thought). No fishing and plenty of rest. Terry fixed me a gourmet lunch, a deluxe peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a can of fruit cocktail. After our traumatic experience with our little friend the day before, we were both in mourning and had agreed not to mention the word Puff in any phrases or sentences. Things like, e.g. puff of smoke, huffing and puffing, puff pastry, Puff the magic dragon….etc. Well, you get the picture.

We put in a reef on the main before dinner, so when the wind picked up after sundown we didn’t have to deal with all the lines and stuff in the dark on the foredeck; a smart move on our part.

Dinner was Pan Seared Mahi Mahi with Mango and Lime Salsa served with Black Beans. Terry said it was so good and it was a toss up with the barracuda the night before. I tended to agree. We had dinner in the cockpit with the sunset on our port. Life was great on Living Water. After dinner at 1800, was the end of my watch and with Terry stuck with dishes, I proceeded to take a shower and head for bed….. Well, that was the plan anyway.

Upon returning from a refreshing shower, I saw Terry had all his tools spread out on my bunk and the floor boards in the salon were all exposed. I asked what happened and he said the fresh water filter was all plugged up with calcium mineral deposits. This was due to his aluminum water tank sitting idle for 7 months in Panama and the chlorinated city water he filled it with was interacting with the aluminum and somehow making little pebble sized deposits in the tank. Our rough sailing the last 24 hours had dislodged those little gems and clogged up the filters. It was supposed to be his turn to shower but there was no water pressure. Being the considerate and kind person that I am, I extended a helping hand and started handing tools to him at his command.

The process to take out ¾ lbs. of those little buggers was very tedious and required the patience of a saint (or Terry). One had to unscrew the tiny water filter, the size of Puff…oops, I mean the size of a D battery, and clean out and remove all the little pebbles. Then put it back on, start the pump, run for a few seconds or until it plugged up again and stop and repeat the whole process again. Sometimes that would not do the trick and we had to take the line off from the intake at the tank and work backwards.

With Terry sitting on the floor and me kneeling next to him, the two of us wearing head lamps, the kind coal miners used but much smaller, we worked like a surgical team in an OR. Terry would say, screw driver, I handed him the screw driver and repeated the same. The commands were as following: screw driver, dental pick (a very sharp instrument that Terry’s dentist still found missing in his office), channel lock, screw driver, switch on, stop, screw driver…..etc. After the 50^th time, I was so good at it, that he didn’t even have to say and I already had the right tool in his hand. 2 hours passed, I was ready to call the local Culligan Man for a house call. At hour 3, I cursed myself for being such a nice guy. 4 hours later (I was not joking), delirium set in and I started to hand him the wrong tools….taxi driver, dental floss, hammer lock. (How I really wanted to give him a hammer lock to stop this insanity). At the 5^th hour, we finally had cycled through all 121 gallons of fresh water in the tank and the flow at that little filter was at 100%. The time was 2400, and my watch was supposed to end, mind you that I hadn’t had my nap and had been up since 1400. We were both dog tired and if you think Terry needed his shower 5 hours ago, you should have seen him then.

I put on a brave face and told Terry to take a much needed shower and I’ll take the first 2 hours of watch for him so he can get some rest. He said thanks and suggested I sit at the Nav Station and just look at the radar to check traffic. I wasn’t about to sit and stare at that little green scope for two hours. I would fall asleep for sure. One way that will keep me awake was to go top side and brace the elements. I put on his foulies and PFD with a tether and hooked myself up on the jack line and sat behind the helm and rode out the waves. The wind throughout the night was 20 knots with a very confused sea. Sitting at the helm looking forward all strapped in was like riding a bronco at a rodeo except in total pitch darkness. The two hours finally passed and Terry came and relieved me. I fell asleep before me head hit the pillow. That was the water filter story.

24 hours noon-to-noon run is 162 nm, a new record for this trip. We were pushing Living Water pretty hard.

Thank you Geraldine, Bill, Richard, Jessica, Mike, Andrew and Larry for your e-mails. Hope you all have a very nice weekend.