Glorious Glorious Doldrums

It is sooooo nice to have a bit of calm and peaceful for awhile. It is feels so good. We are all so happy. We have caught up on our sleep, cleaned the boat, had a bath, hung our wet laundry, fixed the steering, fixed the water maker and made some great meals. The seas are so calm that we are able to motor very easily with little rpm and we are still making almost 5 knots. This is fantastic since we are trying to ration our diesel.

Today we had the most beautiful dolphins up at the bow of the boat. It was right before the winds died down to much to sail, so we had all three sails up and the seas were calm. We were at the bow of the boat hanging over and watching them. I got a few great pictures. They looked really different than other dolphins we have seen. Very large. I will have to look them up once we are in Galapagos.

Being the novice sailor I now am, I decided that since it was calm it would be a good time to check over all the rigging for stress points, etc. To my surprise I actually found a huge impending problem. The main boom has a joint that connects it to the mast and it is a swivel point this is held onto the mast with a huge pin. The pin had popped out of the top and was coming close to falling out the bottom. If this had happened the boom would of come down on deck(I think). Regardless it would of been nasty. I went and got Graham, all proud like and showed him what I had found. He got out his tools and fixed it up. He was really happy that this catastrophe had been diverted. Gotta love kudos.

I helped him today (ok it was more like watched him today) as he fixed the manual steering issue. He is all crouched over and leaning into the hot engine room and the boat is rolling in the gentle pacific swell as we laid adrift. He didn't complain once. He just kept at it until he beat it and had the problem solved. Once he was finished he cleaned up and then started making lunch. I don't know where he gets his work ethic from but it is unmatched. It is very hard not to look lazy in comparison. LOL. I asked him again last night to write a blog and give his perspective and he laughed and said, "I think it is funny how I am portrayed in way that is dependant on your mood!" Right now he is fairing pretty well.

Alex still hasn't caught any fish. He is trying different lures and bringing in and out his lines. It doesn't help that another boat we have been communicating with on SSB is catching fish to beat the band. His time will come.

Well I am going to go back to watching Graham work.