At 0815 UTC on Jan 24, 2017 our position was 16.16.74N, 42.51.29W.
Maple continues to plod her way across the Atlantic. We've had unseasonably light winds so far but we're actually not complaining. Light winds mean less stress on the boat and smaller seas so overall it has been really comfortable out here. We're enjoying the sunshine and the solitude.
Things have been relatively quiet on Maple,on the night of the 22/23 we once again flew the spinnaker at night. Winds were light all day with about 10 knots from the East and we didn't see any signs of impending squalls in the evening so we made the call. At around 0500 UTC the winds picked up and we decided to drop the spinnaker. Janet and I (Darryl) thought we had it under control so did not wake Jeff or Sandra. That was my mistake and one I won't make again. The spinnaker came down beautifully, except for the fact that one of the ropes which control it (the port sheet) ended up in the water.
If I asked you to drop a rope in the water from the bow of our boat, and have it tie a knot around one of the propellers I doubt you could do do it. If I paid you to do it, you wouldn't be able to, but at 5AM when it's dark and windy and you're tired and you don't want the rope to get tangled, I guarantee that it will. Yep, you guess it, the line in the water inevitably managed to wrap itself around the prop. The engines weren't on so it was not a big deal but I couldn't free it from the deck - that's right, I was going to have to go swimming. Fortunately, I could wait for daylight. With the coming of the dawn we stopped the boat as best we could and in I went. The rope came free with no drama and we were underway again in a few minutes. The water is warm and beautiful if you don't mind it being about 4000 meters deep...
We continue to experience some intermittent problems in getting our radio to turn on. It seems that when it's acting up I can get it to work again by removing power from the radio and then restoring it (essentially resetting it???) but I don't know if the issue will continue. Long story short - if you don't hear from us regularly, please do not assume the worst - we are doing well and it is probably just a communication snafu. If anyone wants to google something for me the radio is a ICOM M802 SSB radio. Perhaps "ICOM M802 not turning on" or "need to reset ICOM M802" or something like that? Let me know if you come up with anything relevant. No worries if you don't as I'll be googling like a mad man once we have internet access again.
Love to all from,
Darryl for
The Maple Crew
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