One week

We tackled some boat-keeping chores today. We tidied up a little, did basic equipment maintenance, and hung some lines to dry clothes and towels. Boat life is always wet. Obviously, we're on the water, but it's more than that. We don't have air conditioning, of course, and the inside of the cabin is constantly 95 degrees or higher, so we're constantly trying to balance opening a window to let some air in and then rushing to close it when waves splash over the boat or it starts to rain. The result is that everything is always damp. And it's still 95 degrees inside.

We go through little squalls pretty often. We'll be sailing along, happy and free, and suddenly, the wind will change direction and double in speed, it'll begin pouring rain, and the waves will go crazy. That lasts 15 minutes or so, and then everything just stops. No wind, no rain, flat water. A few minutes later, we'll be back to normal sailing. During the day, we can see the storm coming and prepare for it. At night, there's no warning.

Right around midnight, it felt like Pensive started spinning around in circles, so Jason and I both ran up to the cockpit and found that we were entering a squall and Wendy had broken! The constant vibration of the boat had worked a screw loose, but it was windy and pouring rain, and of course, dark, so fixing it was a bit of a challenge. We ended up taking her apart and turning on the standard autopilot long enough to make it through the night and take another look during the day. She's now back in service, thanks to Jason's excellent mechanical skills.

Later today, we discovered a tear on the bottom of our headsail, so Grace and I made our way to the bow to repair it. That's actually more of an adventure than it sounds like it would be. We have to put on life jackets, tether ourselves to the boat, and walk/crawl to the bow. There, we stay tethered, balance ourselves in a position to reach the sail, and brace ourselves against the wind. That's on a calm day.

The changing weather is pretty cool. It keeps things interesting. We've seen rainbows every day, and watching a squall coming across the ocean can be pretty fascinating.

No picture today. (Will someone let us know if they're coming through?) We're making a couple of little videos to show what things are really like, but we won't be able to post them until we're back in a place with wifi.

We're still making good progress. If things continue this way, we expect to be crossing the equator in three or four days.

Latitude: 6.1856N
Longitude: 154.7906W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C6.1856,-154.7906