Hove To
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Tue 12 Jan 2016 11:02
| Yesterday (Monday) was a lovely sunny day with a 10-15kt southerly wind that made for glorious sailing with the cruising chute in the morning. We knew that a big area of low pressure was coming across, hence the unusual southerly wind rather than the normal NE trade wind. In the afternoon we stowed away the pole, brought down the cruising shute, put up the staysail (smaller of the two sails at the front) and put one reef in the mainsail, all in anticipation of more wind. In fact we put a second reef in to balance the size of the mainsail in relation to the staysail as the boat was wanting to luff up into the the wind. We are getting very slick with raising and lowering the cruising chute! Although we had been sailing a more southerly course to try and stay below the worst of the weather the depression is so large that it would have needed a much bigger and earlier change of course to be fairly certain of avoiding it. Nevertheless it continued to be a lovely sunny evening with little sign of the thickening cloud we would normally associate with pending low pressure, even though the barometer had dropped from 2020 to 2014 over two days. During the night we continued on our south west course, planning to sail around to the north west as the wind became more westerly. And sure enough that is what happened. By 0130 the wind had increased to F7 and seemed to be coming more from the north at which point it made sense to tack back to the south west to sail away from the centre of the depression. At this point all three of us were in the cockpit dealing with the wheel steering, disconnecting the Hydrovane and handling the staysail sheets. After tacking we re-engaged the Hydrovane which I am pleased to report steered flawlessly throughout the night. Steve and I stayed in the cockpit to savour the transatlantic experience (you couldn’t sleep below anyway although Annie seemed to be managing it!) but by 0330 the wind showed no sign of abating so we decided upon another first for Vega, to heave to and go below. I haven’t done this since sailing dingies years ago but it is recommended practice for yachts in bad weather or with crew just waiting a rest. So, we tacked but without letting the staysail across, eased the mainsail and set the wheel to steer to the left with the staysail trying to push the boat to the right. The result is an equilibrium that give the boat no forward speed and holds it roughly at a right angle to the wind. Down below the effect was dramatic as it was so much quieter and with gentle rolling rather than the steep heel when sailing. So we all went to bed with little appreciation of the wind and sea outside. We have drifted about 12 miles to the north east and we are still hove to at 0930 as I write this post and we wait for the wind to come around more to the north west before setting off again……………. ps the goggles were in anticipation of conditions akin to those in the southern ocean - they made a brief appearance last night     |