"Adventure Marcy" Day 7 (people pay to do this?!) Friday 11/9 1:40PM Ginger

Yesterday started like any perfect summer day in Puget Sound. At 5:30AM it was overcast, 75 degrees and there was a refreshing drizzle falling. Light winds, calm seas and the promise of some wind later. After a great spinnaker run we motored all night Wednesday night as the winds died at sunset. So, as I was on watch enjoying the rain the engine room exhaust began to smell strongly of engine exhaust. This is easy to notice as the engine room air blows straight into the cockpit. Further, upon
closer investigation there was also dirty soot coming out with the smelly air. We shut the engine off and a few hours later when it had cooled off Peter then got to work to see what was going on with the engine. Of course we were on port tack sailing up wind so the boat was heeled over and the tools and the problem area on the engine were both way down hill. Peter went to work checking and tightening things and unfortunately found that one of the exhaust manifold studs was broken. That's a mouthful
to repeat on the radio and I'm trying to tell people who actually know what that is so I needed to get it right. It just doesn't fly to say the bolt thingy on the side of the engine broke off. I keep stopping myself from saying it's the exhausted-man-stud on board, but he's OK. The skies cleared the wind filled in and we were making OK progress toward NZ. Mid-morning an NZ Orion search and rescue plane flew over to check on us and the boats that were near us. It was amazing to see them do their
fly-by 300 miles out at sea and Peter had a short chat with the pilot confirming our eta and telling them we had no engine. As the day wore on the winds increased and the seas grew too. It's lumpy again and unfortunately our course is directly up wind. In the evening we took in the jib and set the staysail. In the process Peter was setting the running backstay when the line got stuck throwing him off balance. At that very moment a wave sent him airborne toward the cockpit. I should have known
he would land on his feet but I was reaching for him to keep him on the boat as he was thrown toward me. In the end his elbow is every so slightly sore and I have a black eye. Hopefully it will be better by the time we go out to dinner next Friday for our anniversary. (I'm planning ahead for when I've moved on from the four basic food groups - crackers, bananas, hard boiled eggs and shortbread cookies.) The night was capped off by a mysterious green flare off our port side which I now believe
may have been space debris coming down. This morning was spent bailing the bilge (as usual) and fixing heads. We've found that we have two fine options aboard Marcy right now. The aft head has an "issue" with the seas so it's more of a bidet, not too bad if it's just salt water but...we've closed that seacock. The forward head has a fun little twist that one can multi task with a salt water shower from the port above while one is sitting on the throne. It's very exciting. We've had reports
that the wind should be more easterly tomorrow and we're hoping for that shift. There are gale force winds predicted for the area we're headed to on Monday and we're hoping to get in before it builds to the forecast 40 knots. In the last 24 hours we have sailed 102 miles and made only 56 miles headway toward NZ. Spirits are good aboard and we're looking forward to landfall in a couple of days. We've been checking into the Seafarer's net as well as a net with 4 other boats out here. Misery loves
company and we've all had our share of challenges. One boat has prop shaft problems and has to replace breaking bolts if they motor so they're trying not to. One boat has a leaking center board so they can't use it (really bad problem for up wind sailing) and they have old sails that aren't in the best shape for this kind of sailing. We're holding our own with the other two and it was fun to cross tacks with Sand Dollar (skipper Don is a Dr. from the Seattle area) yesterday a couple of times.