Thursday 11th May
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Thu 11 May 2017 17:20
Sailing along on a broad reach at nearly 8 knots in a SSW 5, with the sun shining. And we have company; a Halberg Rassy 49 is gradually overtaking us, although they set out at the same time 8 days ago. We are a bit over half way and stores are holding out well.
However we don’t expect these comfortable conditions to last more than another 24 hours or so. Over Saturday a SW gale is predicted, the cold front passing by us on Sunday morning. At present we are trying to work out whether it’s better to just carry on the direct track, or to change course a bit to keep a bit further south. Normally lighter winds are experienced the further from the centre of a depression one is, and this one should pass north of us, hence keeping S is a possible option. The potential downside is that after the passage of the front the wind will veer to the N so we’d then need to be closer hauled than were we to have stuck to the direct route. We need to download and analyse the GRIB files later today, and then keep track of it over the next 36 hours.