Noumea to Kupang Day 16 - And now for the gennaker

Caduceus
Martin and Elizabeth Bevan
Sat 17 Oct 2015 09:06

Position           09:34.67 S 127:36.64 E                              

Date                1200 (UTC+9) Saturday 17 October 2015

Distance run    in 24hrs 137nm over the ground, 125nm through the water

Trip total         2527nm over the ground, 2437nm through the water

To go to           Kupang Indonesia 282nm

 

The wind once again died overnight and at the watch change at 0100 we dropped the pole so that I could tack the genoa unaided if required.  This time we motored for 6 hours until 0800 when sail power cut in again.  When the Mate arose we hoisted the gennaker for the first time in many months and that together with a very placid sea enabled us to move along at around 5 knots in 7-8 knots if true wind.  The calculation now running is to try and time our arrival for our next waypoint to be just on or after dawn on Monday so that we can cover the last 45nm into Kupang in broad daylight.  This works out at an average of about 5.5 knots.  With the wind forecast to drop away again about midnight this looks good.  Last night we motored at 6 knots on about 1300 rpm so we should be able to fine trim our ETA using the overnight motoring.  The forecast for Sunday looks very light so it may be that we have to motor a large part of the last 200nm or so.

 

Gennaker to the fore sailing on a placid sea