Recap: Hawaii Passage, The First Week at Sea...

We have now been at sea for 7 days, which is longer than our previous biggest passage from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas. We have covered 738 nm and are fairly pleased to be at 122° W. We are hoping to make a bit faster progress once we get into the trades and the winds start filling in.
We were pretty seasick for the first few days of the passage, with very little appetite and needing frequent rests in the bunk. We had prepared some meals beforehand (and a chocolate cake!), and these definitely helped us get through the adjustment period. By Day 4 we had our appetites back and were starting to function more normally. Matt was already able to read, but I was just happy to be able to do entries in the log book without needing to lie down. The motion bothers me less and less with each passing day, and it's pretty remarkable to experience how adaptable the human body is. Our muscles are definitely tired from continually bracing against the motion, so I expect us to be pretty trim by the time we get to Hawaii.
The morning of Day 4, we had a small equipment failure with the outhaul, which holds the clew of the sail to the boom. We used a length of Spectra line for a simple lashing repair. We had pretty light winds the night before, so it is likely that the sail slatting fatigued the part. The repair seems to be holding up fine, distributing the load better than the original design which had been intended for a footed mainsail (we switched to a loose-footed main when the current sails were made in 2012).
At 10pm on the night of Day 4, we had a worse issue when an actuator joint of the Monitor windvane (our self-steering device) failed. By inspection, a retaining ring broke and allowed a critical Teflon actuator shaft bearing (parts 54 and 55, if you have the manual) to fall off into the water. We spent about half of the night coming up with and implementing a repair using a modified wooden dowel rod and some seizing wire. This would have been next to impossible without having the right tools aboard (saw, drill, and the required diameter bits). We were then becalmed, and finally motored slowly for a few hours so that we could get some stable motion to rest. It was a pretty rough night, but in the morning we found that the repair was functioning well and able to handle the loads. The windvane has been steering since! The loss of the windvane would mean that we would have to hand steer (we have a small tiller pilot which can handle light conditions, but not heavy wind and waves) and with over 2200 nm to go at that point, we considered returning to Cabo if we couldn't fix it.
Since the excitement of Day 4, things have calmed down and we are now in a pretty good routine of taking care of the boat and ourselves. Now that we are far enough off the coast, the winds are pretty constant during the day, and we are able to cover some distance reaching or close reaching. The winds subside slowly through the night before picking up again in the morning. At night, we've been able to keep moving with the sails mostly full by running close-hauled or on a close reach, though we have been becalmed twice and typically have a couple of frustrating hours of slatting sails each night. The weather has been surprisingly cool at night, and we find ourselves wearing fleece pants, foulies, and our tuques. Daytime temperatures have been pleasant, with shorts and t-shirts the norm. Generally the temperature inside the boat is between 70 and 75°F. The sky is usually overcast in the morning and evening, with sunny breaks during the daytime. Even on the cloudiest days, the solar panels have been able to keep our batteries charged and cycling between 80 and 100%. Once clearing the busy coastal shipping route (Panama to West Coast ports), we have only seen two ships and one yacht. About five dolphins visited on Day 7, and other than the occasional birds and flying fish on deck, it is just us and the infinite sea.
We each do two 3 hour shifts of watch per night, which means we are also getting two 3 hour shifts of sleep per night. We try to supplement a couple hours of naps each wherever we can, and extend the morning sleep shift a bit. Keeping the boat moving, navigating, daily log entries, calling and interpreting the weather, and preparing and eating meals takes up most of our time. I will always take a nap if there is a spare moment. I'm not the most alert I have ever been, but it seems to be enough sleep to keep going without feeling rundown.
Our supply of fresh produce is holding up nicely, better than expected. The crates of separated fruits and vegetables are stowed in the v-berth, and we put tin-foil on the portlights to keep it dark. The cool temperatures and no light make it an ideal storage space, and I think we might even have fresh produce all the way until the end! We may have used an overly large factor of safety for the amount of food that we brought (for example, we brought 18 1L boxes of milk, and after one week have used only two), but you don't know until you get out here. We also checked our fresh water supply and have only used 10 gallons for drinking and cooking, and 2 gallons for showers. That means we still have 63 gallons of fresh water left. We use sea water for dishes, which keeps our overall consumption down.
Overall after one week, morale is still high aboard the good ship AEOLI!

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