Day 25 (Monday, July 7, 2008) by Mike

Sailing with Dummies (Hawaii to Alaska Edition)

The sea was calm most of the morning. We motored until midmorning when I put out the gennaker. Around noon, Bob and I decided to get the spinnaker out of the hold and straighten out the tangled ropes on it. Once we had it sorted out we noticed that the weather looked good for spinnakering. So we put it up. Just like that. We put up the spinnaker in one try. Nothing tangled, no problems … we just put it up and then we went fast.

We kept going fast throughout the afternoon and on into the evening. The waves were small, the ride was smooth, and we were moving! It was smooth enough sailing that Bob poured diesel from 5-gallon jugs into our big tanks. There was bicycling, there was the washing of clothes, there was cooking, and everyone was in good cheer. The spinnaker continued to fly and pulled the boat right along.

We decided to keep the spinnaker up overnight and I decided to go to bed. Bob joked that he would roust me out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night when the wind changed, to take down the spinnaker. I took a steaming hot shower (it was nice). Then I headed to bed, got situated under the covers, and started reading. This kind of sailing is hard to beat.

After about 15 minutes of relaxing reading, Melinda yelled down “Mike, I think we might need you.” Right. Of course, I didn’t believe her. But I should have. I yelled back “are you joking?” No answer. I closed my eyes and waited.

Soon she poked her head down and announced “yes, we need you.” So I began the process of putting on a couple of layers of clothes, expecting to take down the spinnaker due to changed winds. The spinnaker is in a sock so it should be easy to take down. When I got outside I saw the spinnaker dragging along the side of the boat, half in the water and half out. It had torn all the way down the front edge.

The spinnaker retrieval process took 15-20 minutes, after which I was soaked with salt water. Cold salt water. I stripped the wet stuff off and headed back to the shower. The shower produced approximately 30 seconds of lukewarm water, enough to get properly lather up, before it turned frigid. It sure takes a long time to get soap off when the water’s freezing.

Shivering and mostly dry, I made my way to my 51-degree bedroom and crawled under the pile of covers with two layers on. I read for a couple of hours and my feet never did get warm.

How’s the weather in Oklahoma?

Temperature report:

Bedroom: 51 degrees

Upstairs: 58 degrees

Outside: 48 degrees

Daily Cuisine:

Josh made a very nice shepherd’s pie this afternoon. It was perfect for a grey, chilly afternoon.

Fishing Report:

The fishing stinks! (no bites)

Arts and Entertainment:

More piano playing and a few movies.