Too Fast - don't want to arrive at sunken reef at night! - 6.6. 01:56, 28nm to go
Andromeda
Michael
Thu 5 Jun 2014 14:14
Too Fast - don't want to arrive at sunken reef at night!
Friday, 6.6. 01:56, 28nm to go
Ever since my tea spilled over my notebook Wednesday night, we are experiencing a very bumpy ride with rather strong winds.
So I never got to do the English version as I had hoped to do this time - shame!
And now it's still definitely too bumpy for anything elaborate.
The entire Thursday was marked by one squall after the other, bringing strong gusts, rain and fairly high waves.
The cockpit is totally soaked. We had to stop our wind generator as something is lose and it doesn't spin correctly. And the cockpit cover, the bimmany started ripping at one part due to the wind constantly pulling on it and waves washing over it - the cockpit! And the new alternator on the starboard engine is not generating any amps for our batteries.
All in all not too bad, and will be able to fix all once we reach the anchorage.
Very, very much looking forward to that.
The wind is really not that bad, but our direction. The true wind is somewhat between 16-25 knots, but we're beating right into it, and into bumpy waves and Andromeda is bouncing around all over the place. Ha, got a good title for a book: 'Bouncy Castle' - any comments?
It seems that with the new antifouling, Andromeda is easily 1 and a half knots faster!
We're flying with 3rd reefed main and reefed genoa with 8-9 knots through the mountains of waves. Which also increases the bounciness. We tried to slow her down without losing steering or our very close reach - but it just doesn't seem possible.
However, we keep having .5-1.5kn current against us, actually coming somewhat from East. That really doesn't seem to help us to head more East, where we need to go.
Fortunately, a few hours ago at least the squalls stopped and we have a continuos aparent wind of 25-32 knots (for know..).
Should approach Minerva Reef South at dawn. Fortunately, we have been to Minerva Reef North and now that one of our charts is very accurate. And there is supposedly a light, visible from 10miles. And it's supposed to be low tide, and the reef should come out at least half a meter.
Very much looking forward to a calm anchorage and hopefully some sun for drying out things!
So long.
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