Drum roll

Fleck
Mon 16 Jun 2014 16:09
Date Monday, 16th June.
 
Position 35:21.8N 60:06.3W
 
Dear Diary, a quiet Father's Day yesterday. But enough plays on deafness for now, and anyway the crew of Switzerland remembered to blog the dads back home: lots of brownie points there, girls and boys!
 
We get a drum roll on Fleck when the wind exceeds 20 kts, it is caused by a vibration in the luff of the mainsail slapping against the mast. It is sufficient to make the whole boat tremble slightly, and it is intense, and I suppose threatening for the obvious reason, I never need more than 20 kts of wind to sail at maximum speed, so we have to shed energy by reefing down, and crashing about in the seas. I don't know what depresses me more: a rising wind, or a falling wind. Only last night it was a falling wind that had the staysail slapping one of the forward lower stays every minute or so: you sleep if the noise has a nice rhythm, but strident percussion when you don't expect it? Try sleeping through Shoenberg.
 
Still, we are going quite well, calms up ahead in a day or so, and the engine cooling still troubles me, but hey, do I do this for pleasure? I have plotted my route so far on the basis of the grib files.It is interesting that it exactly matches the 'Middle Route' marked out on the Imray N Atlantic chart as the compomise route between gales in the north, and calms in the south. We shall see.