Squalls rolled through every half hour last night, bringing 30kn of wind and waves on the beam, robbing us of sleep. It continued after sunrise, and the direction of the wind began to shift, turning us away from our destination. 

Ray ran our port engine to charge the start battery for a while, which has been giving us trouble lately. In an emergency, we want to be able to start our engines immediately, not fumble around trying to jump-start them. We turned the engine off once it was sufficiently charged and will continue to be mindful of it. The wind leveled out in the afternoon, blowing a consistent 18-22kn. There were still some squalls on the horizon, so we kept the mainsail at its second reef but let out the full jib. The sea state remained large and in charge. 

I spent a lot of time today thinking about the projects I’d like to tackle during our time on the hard in New Zealand. A shocking number involve sewing, which I’ve never done before. Sabado is nearly 8 years old and our factory line bags and curtains are on their last leg. 

I’d also like to make a cover for our helm seat; our dinghy chaps could use some patches, a few of our fender covers could stand to be replaced, etc. I’ll need to solicit some quotes and compare the numbers, but I’m 99% sure it would be more cost-effective to purchase a Sailrite sewing machine and learn to do it myself. A Sailrite would be nice to have aboard long term anyway to repair our sails/sunbrella/eisenglass in the future. I have a pretty ambitious list, but I think it would be worth the investment even if I only complete the curtains, dinghy chap repairs, and line bags. If you have a sewing machine on board, I’d love to hear about your model and if you think it’s worth carrying.

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch up on sleep when we weren’t on watch. I’m hoping tonight will be calmer… 

It’s currently blowing 18kn (TWS), and we’re going 7.2kn (SOG). I’m looking forward to my nap time. 🙂 

See ya tomorrow!