pitch black
Gudrun V
Axel Busch
Thu 13 Sep 2012 10:17
Afternoon was pretty nice weather-wise, light winds and sun. I spent most of the day in the cockpit, reading, watching, organizing the boat. The sea was strangely uncomfortable. No big waves, just lots of little ones with no pattern. And some old swell. Only 1m high, but very insistent. Every time one of them rolled underneath the boat it lurched sideways funny and I had to stop whatever I was doing for 5sec and hold on. Even while reading lying down! Very strange.
The gennaker did it's trick again and wrapped it around itself so that I had to take it down and patiently untwist it on the deck. It looks like the design doesn't work very well in rolly seas. Put the genoa up the rest of the day.
Before nightfall I saw clouds moving in and getting thicker. Decided to reef the main-sail and finished just as the first rain-drops started to fall. Now making good speed in absolute pitch black darkness. Clouds and no moon. It's absolutely dark like you can't imagine. Visibility stops right in front of my eyes, I can't see the length of the cockpit. It's a little disquieting to blast along through the night without seeing anything. Fortunately there's isn't much around out here on the ocean. No beep from the AIS or Radar detector all week. To sail like this in a coastal environment would be absolute madness.
270nm to go