Blue Wonder - Thursday 25/11/2021
Rapier 550 on tour
Mark Jarvis
Thu 25 Nov 2021 18:46
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Position: 25 46.1N 025 17.1W
We had a blustery night with winds up to 35 knots
at midnight. The sea was lumpy and then it started to rain, heavily! This isn't
the transatlantic trade wind sailing I signed up for! Addictive Sailing
(Marsaudon TS5) and Minimole (Neel 47) have gone North of us and are
getting quite a pasting from the weather, I hope they are ok too.
We reduced sail from the warmth and dry of the sail
station, right adjacent to the helm and so nobody had to go out side or even get
wet...that's one of the great safety features of this design. Watch keeping in
these conditions at the helm without having to put on wet weather gear is a big
bonus. I'm not sure that being on watch that close to the galley is doing my
waistline any good - it's too easy to get a light snack when there's nothing
else happening!
Today has been an exercise in trying to interpret
weather forecasts and getting our selves into the best position for the next
phase of the trip - downwind! We are now headed south with the wind coming
directly from the track we wanted to follow. The sea-state is from yesterday's
storm and so it's pretty lumpy but the boat has been doing well
in 2-3m seas on the bow and still making 6-9 knots at 40 degrees to the
apparent wind!
The wind has dropped this afternoon and so we are
now back to full main and jib. Another day of this and then the North
Easterly winds should set in and we can again head directly for St
Lucia.
Fair Winds
Mark |
