Cape Town to St Helena - Day 6
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Mon 27 Feb 2023 10:53
27:36.4S 07:03.9E COG 335T SOG 5.5+kts Guided by LuckGrib we have been sailing a little to the south of the direct (rhumb) line to St Helena. We use LuckGrib for detailed passage planning and this is now suggesting we head more to the north. For the bigger picture we download a much greater coverage GFS file from Mailasail Weather and this is showing the South Atlantic High pressure system moving northwards. The South Atlantic High is a permanent system that, rotating anti clockwise, gives rise to the south easterly Atlantic trade wind that blows from South Africa. It may be permanent but is not stationary nor static in shape, being influenced by low pressure to the south, the seasonal tilt of the earth and so forth. So there is some variation of the wind around the High. If we stay to the north of the High it looks like we can expect wind of up to 15kts for most of our passage which would be perfect as we could then, as now, maintain around 6kts SOG under genoa alone. If however we allow the centre of the High to reach us we could lose the wind altogether. One feature of the trade wind is that it comes through in pulses. You get a periods of quite strong wind interspersed with periods of less wind. Last night in the windier conditions we were romping along at over seven knots. In the pitch black of the night this was a bit unnerving so we reefed to reduce speed. No sooner reefed than the wind dropped and the fear was that we were losing it altogether. So we unreefed the genoa and hoped the wind would pick up again (which it did). It was actually quite a good way of adding interest to an otherwise monotonous watch. Now that we are getting into passage making again we have music playing throughout the boat at times. All the old favourites on my iPod that if we select random play gives enough variety and the occasional (usually pleasant) surprise. Sometimes the music triggers intense periods of melancholy - a craving for safe havens, home and family life. I had one of these yesterday before receiving an update from Colin and Izzi who have reached the island of Fernando de Noronha in Brazil. They were accompanied by dolphins as they took their dinghy ashore and were then met by the local police woman for immigration formalities who was dressed in nothing more than a string bikini. Maybe cruising is not so bad after all. |