Monday

Gudrun V
Axel Busch
Mon 24 Sep 2012 11:11
Monday, 2012-09-24, 0:00 UTC-11, 19:12.336S 171:04.326W, COG 250, SOG 5.5kn, Wind 15kn SE, overcast

Very light wind most of the day, mostly around 5kn, sometimes 8kn. At first I had the full main and gennaker up which gave me ok speed despite having barely a breeze. But as it often is with light winds, it shifted a lot around between S and NE, and I got tired of gybing all the time and also of the flapping main due to the old swell and at 2pm I dropped the main and just sailed with the gennaker. Which worked better then I had expected. I could go down to 150 apparent instead of 130, and it didn't roll much more then before. And no banging.

10pm the wind increased to 15kn, at which point it gets a little hairy with the gennaker because the boat's doing hull-speed already. At night with an overcast sky I can't see what's coming my way wind-wise, and more then 15kn and I'm in trouble with the gennaker up. I didn't want to risk loosing my last light wind sail, so I took it down and am now sailing with the genoa. Slower then before, and it's rolling a lot more. I really do miss the parasailor. Well, not much point in getting all sentimental, you've got to work with what you've got. But I notice that the longer I sail, the more I prefer light winds. 10kn really is about ideal, nice and comfy and sufficiently fast. I guess I'm getting old & soft ;-)