Day 8 - Standard Sails Up
Bonkers
Donald Macdonald
Sun 29 Oct 2023 16:47
Last night dropped the trysail and main up with 3 reefs with storm sail and speed was good in the right direction. Kept sail configuration until daylight then replaced storm with heavy weather sail. Been keeping about 6 knot average all the time. During te day wind been up and down so swapping between reefs 2 & 3 often. Expect this lighter wind 20-30 knots until late Monday morning. After that will have a large patch of very little or no wind so fossil squeezing juice will be used to get through it. We still have 4 meter waves and for the last hour or so have seen the sun so not too bad for now.
When main went up noticed small hoe near leach between top 2&3 battens, probably caused by chaffing when boom lashed down to the deck when trysail up. Last night nearly did not get a hot meal as could not get any knobs to work, eventually success with one. Today spent about an hour freeing them up, not sure why they jammed, could be due to sea water going over cooker from top leak and interacting with years of grime. For now WD40 and brute force have released them, just hope we get dinner later.
This morning John would join all you lot in blighty and have a lie in as the clocks went back. Wrong he got a rude awakening instead. Modern technology too clever by half, sometimes.
If the present gust dies down a bit more will try chicken in white sauce, peas and carrots, with cheese and a baguette then tinned fruit pears if I can find them.