Day 2 - Downwind following seas
Bonkers
Donald Macdonald
Sun 4 Jun 2023 16:59
|
Position: 48.57.78N 9,32,22W
Last 24 hours has been busy with little sleep. Belgium
jib put up to hopefully stop spinnaker wraps when in light winds and lumpy seas.
Thought I had the luff shortened enough to be taught but 'no', had to do a
workaround, not ideal but should be OK for this trip. Just before dusk a
gybe carried out using both poles to make the spinnaker more stable, then
realised I should not have used the inner forestay halyard as required for 2nd
pole. A lot of mucking it around to get it down and up on the spare spinnaker
halyard. Gybe went well. Got a couple 20 minute sleeps in, The wind was building
and waves about 2 meters. Harold Jnr coping well. A review of forecast suggested
was going to build so I should be prudent and take it down. Did not for a few
hours as was overtaking boats nearby who had, Eventually common sense prevailed,
jib out and spinnaker down surprisingly without getting it wet as 18-20 knots of
breeze. Jib poled out and got to some surfing in at 12 knots. Wind built more to
24 knots and we were rolling a lot, reef required. Poled out head sail and
luffing sounded very bad and did not look good with pole near forestay, next
time will furl jib for the operation, Reefing did not go well as shackle broke
on block at base of mast so needed to put 2nd one in to repair that. Repair
done, 2nd reef still in sometimes hitting 11 knots Think wind is slowly dropping
so will need to take this 2nd reef out.
2nd reef out picked up another competitor on AIS and
they were generally going faster. Now I have the edge although not as
comfortable. Also gybed south may be on this for a couple of days.
Diner this evening was Irish stew, pitta bread followed
by tinned mandarins. Other delights during day and night, packet ginger nuts,
liquorice allsorts, picnic and a twirl bar plus the healthy breakfast of
Frosties and full fat mlk. |