June 11th: Rolling & repairs by Brett

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Volpaia Time: 22:00
Zulu Time: 04:00
7 00. 67 N
128 42.51 W
Speed: 7.7 knots
Wind: 19 knots 005 T
Course: 225 T
Seas: 3-4 ft
Crew: Shay helming, Cyrus getting off watch, Brett writing log, Alix sleeping, Colby reading.

Comments:

First off, if any of the recipients of this log have received doubles, or more, we had a glitch with our satellite email server yesterday and have hopefully gotten it sorted. Sorry about that. Our recources are a little limited out here but I think we have it sorted. Thanks for your patience.

I will now pass the mic to our next guest log writer, Brett.

Just now on Volpaia we have crossed over the seventh latitude. The convergent zone of strange weather that has been a regularity over the past few days has surprised us again with 20kt north winds, and cooler air, however not cool enough to be wearing anything other than underwear. Getting out of my bunk this morning at 130 i could tell it was still raining. The seas were rolling and bouncing as the trifecta of swell directions joined one another to pitch and pull from bow to stearn. At first the rain was very weak like a heavy fog, condensed just enough to from tiny, misty droplets, which in turn get blown into any cracked hatch and make everythign damp. With my bunk feeling like a warm dish sponge and rolling around sticking to everything I touched the night before, I knew a nice cup of coffee would set the pace right for the watch. The simplistic beauty of a french pressed cup of black coffee, with its frothy foam head could not have been any better for me at that time, infact it could have been the best cup of coffee in my life. With a good pace and on deck now, Colby and I fought for 2 hours to get the headsail to stay belly full, but could not find victory in the squally, shifting wind. Defeated, I rinsed off the loss in the now heavy rain. The sky was black, and what I thought was a reflection of stars on the surface of the sea all around us, turned out to be a glowing ocean of phospherous, agitgated by the heavy rain. By the time I had dried off it was 615, my watch was over and I went down below to get some sleep.

I woke up at 11, made anoher equally delicious french press, and started to clean Volpaias interior. With all of us wiping the salt and grime off everything after being out to sea for over a week, the boat was ship shape by 2. At this point, Colby had put on his mechanics pants and climbed deep within the bellows of the lazz to fix Jimmy our auto-pilot, who sustained a leak while serving us last night. A few hours into that project, I took the wheel from Alix, who had been steering us for about six hours. Almost at the same time, the fishing reel alarm sounds and Shay brings up our first Mahi-Mahi. It was about a 12 to 15lb fish, and a beautiful one at that. Brilliant yellow, tourquoise, and blue. After we thanked the pacific for being so kind to us I filleted it and chunked half of it for ceviche. Note: fresh Mahi-Mahi is the best fish for ceviche. You simply cannot get any better.

The project to save Jimmy at this point had become the main focus of the day. With only the bottoms of Colbys feet showing out of the bellows for several hours, he emeged, hair puffed and fried. Shay, Cyrus and Colby then deliberated on what tools were needed to finish the project. With all the tools packed up Shay and Cyrus grabbed Colby by the ankles and thrust him back down. 2 hours and several ruptured hydraulic hoses later, Jimmy was fixed. Colby re appeared with a healthy greasy glow, and Cyrus decided to slow the boat down for a bluewater swim. We tied a few lines to the back and dove off to play in the lumpy, warm pacific. The water is the bluest you could imagine. Opening your eyes and looking down at such vast space makes you wonder what actually calls this place home, and thats when you grab the line firmly and pull yourself back aboard the boat. We then sat down to delicious ceviche tacos and called it a day. Another great day out here with many more to come, and all of us enjoying every moment. Even Colby, who we think enjoys the time when he can be a grease monkey the most. Thats all for now, but not for good. Cheers from the Volpaia crew. ~Brett

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