Pacific Crossing Day 7: Getting in the Groove

I came up to the helm for my first shift of the night last night, and Ray had our bright blue deck light on. He explained that there was a flock of birds following us, and they seemed to not land on the boat as often when the light was on. “If you see them land, give this line a shake to scare them off,” he said, gesturing to a line he had run from bow to stern. They were red-footed boobies, so I sat at the helm listening to their unique call; similar to the sound of pulling duct tape off the roll, you can listen here and let me know what you’d compare it too. I have a feeling the boat is going to be covered in bird shit by sunrise.

Aside from our feathery stalkers, it was a lovely night! We sailed at 7kn in 14kn of wind until 2am, when we lost it all and had to turn on an engine. It was a bouncy ride but not terribly uncomfortable. The sea state had flattened out considerably by 7am. It was a cloudy, damp morning, and the deck was indeed covered in bird shit. 

We motor sailed the rest of the day. I published our first YouTube video in a while, detailing our departure and the first four days of this passage. You can watch it here! Ray rinsed off our solar panels and scrubbed the remains of last night’s visitors off the deck. 

Our day was otherwise uneventful. We sat at the helm, took naps, and tracked down a couple of squeaks. I feel like we’re finally getting in the groove of life on passage; our shifts are getting longer, and the days are getting easier. Of course, it would be nice to have more wind, but we knew it would be like this between Panama and the Galapagos, so we can’t really complain. As I’m posting this, we have 5kn of wind, our main and jib up, and our port engine on. It’s still overcast and quite chilly. I’m considering digging out some sweatpants for tonight…