1500hrs- Winds pick up 30 mph. We put in one reef in the main, take down the 163 and bag it. The 160 was lashed on deck from earlier use, so we bagged her and put both below. Then brought back up the 130 and hoisted her. Each bag is as big as Jean and I and they are very hard to move in this wind. We both are moving slow to get this done and Mike is hand steering. It is a tiring 1.5 hours to get it all done, but this has to be done to get ready for a gale and darkness. We have just gotten our storm and Sabra is kicking up her heels. You go girl. At 2200hrs we are 394nm from the cape.
24 July- Winds-north- have increased to35mph at 0100hrs.
0400 hrs- We are all up to put the 2 reef in main and leave the 130 up. The seas are huge and daylight is beginning. Sabra is doing very well, then some beeg rollers come thru perhaps 20-25 feet high. We had some 45 gusts and once the anemometer was pegged 2x at 50mph, but mostly stayed 30-35. We had to take the vane off, as the gaskets slipped on that lower mounting bracket. Back to hand and bungee steering. Have switched to 2 hrs on and 4 off. We are very wet, it is cold, the condensation is running off the cabin walls.
1300 hrs. We have re-bled the engine to start on forward tank and then switch to aft tank. We can’t get engine to start on aft tank even with bleeding it. We are eating little for day and half, no cooking.
Electric bilge pump also acting up again. Now hand pumping q 2 hrs, depending on the amount of seas crashing on us. Thank heavens for that new dodger extension and weather cloths. They keep most of it off us.
2200hrs-240nm to Cape.
