Galapagos to Marquesas 16th March
Exocet Strike
John & Stella Dyer
Mon 16 Mar 2015 12:33
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The wind is slowly dying, yesterday afternoon we
had a great sail with the Asymetric spinnaker up, doing reasonable speeds, but
at 2300 it all started going wrong. I had decided to keep the A sail up all
night, but that didnt count on clouds, no squalls just clouds, and the wind
increased and veered, ie went more west, by 20 deg. Doesnt sound much but from
14 knots to 20 or 22 is a 40 to 50% increase and going forward increases the
effect, hence several broaches, ie when the boat lurches into the wind, people
and things down below often go flying at this point, or fall out of their bunks.
So we furled the big sail and unfurled the genoa, and then had a night of the
sails banging as the waves push the boat around, with insufficient wind to help
the boat to overcome the waves.
Looks like we have these low winds until we reach
the Marquesas, in what may well be 7 or 8 days, rather than the 6 we were hoping
for from this point, oh well thats sailing. The boats to our east look to have
an even slower time, although of course things may change.
John
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