Monday 5th June
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Mon 5 Jun 2017 14:03
So much for the long-range forecasts! At 8pm last night even the short range one for our area, broadcast from Spain via Navtext was still predicting W 5 - 6 but it had in fact by then been F7 for a while. This veered a bit and increased to F8 at around 2am, so we rolled away the last of the yankee and gybed onto port tack, leaving out the staysail and 2 reefs in the main. But around 04:30 it suddenly got to F9 and the #2 reefing line parted with a bang. It may, but we can’t be sure just yet, have broken a sail batten but in any case we then had to put in the third and final reef. The big stainless steel carabiner which holds the boom preventer to the foredeck has distorted badly as well, so it all took rather a strain last night!
But around midday the wind veered a bit more and the skies began clearing so we get the occasional sunny interval and the wind has gone down to a westerly 6 to 7 so we’re bowling along nicely, nearly on course. Nearly rather than exactly as we want to keep the port quarter to the waves since reaching while going very fast with our beam to breaking waves is a recipe for a knock-down hence steering ENE. Coincidentally, at around the same time as the wind began reducing a Navtext forecast came through warning of exactly what we’ve been having for the last 12 hours. The Channel should get this weather system tonight.
We expect the wind and seas to abate gradually over the afternoon and early evening so we will then turn back NE. We should then get rather light winds and calmer seas until Wednesday night whereupon the next depression will be upon us.
Still, all is well and we’ve less than 600 miles to go so are over half way to the Lizard. The chart has been turned over and our positions are now marching towards home rather than away from the Azores. If all goes as we hope then that means arriving on Friday, but of course anything could go wrong by then: at sea, in parliament or on the streets. Maybe being out at sea is the best option!