26:19.900N 57:37.737W
SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Mon 4 Jun 2018 01:32
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606.0 nm ...
Talk to Chris... The weather ahead is not too
good... Need speed...
Looks like the journey may take a bit ( big
'bit') longer then planned...
On a funny note... see below. The story should
be called -- flying Captain...
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Boring sailing…
For those, who is reading the blog — it may become
boring… ‘ Made the amount of miles, sails up, sails down…’ Big
deal…
I’ve been thinking the same… The boat is
moving with the gennaker… Light winds, blue sky… The clouds
started to move from West to East, instead from East to West… Big deal…
I’ve done enough change of sails over the last
couple of days, and I thought I deserved to have a rest and to enjoy
sailing with gennaker, with speed finally started to pick up… 6 kts,
7 kts… 8 kts… With motor turned off…
However, the Ocean has a different training plan …
‘ — Well, my dear Captain. Have you read carefully the chapter about handling gennaker? — Yes, Sir… I did. — Ok. Good. Today we are going to try to do things when something is not going as planned… — Wait, wait… ‘ Strong puff of wind from the nowhere… Autopilot says — too much for me… your turn… After few days of 3-5 knots of wind — the jump to 12-13 kts … Within a fraction of time, gennaker became too much of the canvas, the boat decided to broach… Ok, steering by hand, recovering…
Even better… Now we are gaining more East…
But the steering groove became too narrow for the autopilot to handle… A light turn — and too much apparent wind… meaning overpower… meaning broaching… Well, I remember that lesson from the passage
to Columbia. Yes, we do have too much of canvas. Time to remove the
gennaker… Too late… We are overtaken by squall…
Ok, my fault… agree. The punishment -
steering the boat by hand in pouring rain… Well, I wanted to take the shower
anyway… Just keep running away… The wind is picking up a bit, to 13+
kts… Yes, Ocean — I see your point… Even the relatively light wind may
make a total havoc… Point taken… What do you mean it is not a ‘total
havoc’? Oh… you mean another big squall which is catching on us from
behind…
It is still a bit behind… time to remove the
gennaker… I did it so many times later… One more…
— autopilot on, controlling the boat. Checked. — motor on… Checked. — front hatch opened, for the gennaker within the sock to go inside. Checked… — lines to pull the sock on collapsed gennaker and put the sock down are clear and in hands, checked; — I’m in life jacket and attached to life lines; checked… — Time to act, pulling the sock down… ( The rain has been waiting for that moment. Started again… pouring ) — Hmm… Something different this time… The sock supposed to go down, not me flying into the air… Ocean, is that what you mean — ‘Not planned?!’ The realisation of the situation arrived relatively
quick. Under the load, the sock stucked on top… My attempt to pull
it down moved it a bit… But in the next moment — the puff of the wind opened
partially collapsed gennaker, the sock moved up, and here I’m — flying
more then a meter above the deck, right on top of open hatch,
being stretched between the life lines and lines controlling the sock…
Have you ever been a kite in the sky? I’ve been today…
Autopilot happily steering the boat from the wind,
the wind slowly getting up as the second squall arriving, and here we are — all
are happily flying!
Slowly landing myself on deck… running to cockpit…
changing course… to collapse gennaker… running back… Aga, the sock is going
down… go… go… go… Oh, no! The wind changes direction, the gennaker
is filling, the sock going up… I’m flying again… This time higher, and faster…
After a few attempts I managed… The gennaker is in
sock, I’m on the deck… time to put the halyard down, and put the whole
cabana in the boat through the hatch… Rain… A lot of rain now… Plus a lot of
wind… Squall… Have to pull it down since it is getting wet, heavy and violent
under the wind… Lowering the gennaker, nearly done… halyard stopped…
‘ — Captain, have you ever read how difficult to
recover the sails from the water?
— I did, Ocean, I did!!! — Ok, let us try it… ‘ A wave moved on top of the bow, halyard moved, the skirt of the gennaker washed overboard… Yes, it is secured… It is not going anywhere… It is just like a big bag filled with water… And I have to pull I back… Slowly… You see, reading is good — you remember the trick… At 1341 local time the ‘training drill’ declared
over… The wet gennaker is within the boat… The boat is running under the
main sail and yankee… The wind is up to give us enough propulsion, the
motor is turned down…
The blue sky on top… gentle SW breeze of 12 - 14
kts… with light gusts… Line of squalls far behind us…
It is amazing how powerful the wind may be, even
the lightest one. It is astonishing how narrow the line between situation being
under control and out… And how far can we go with control, being
prepared and trained? But we cannot be prepared for everything, right? So,
what if… ?
The good part doing the exercise on high seas
— nobody around, nobody watching. And still, instinctively I checked
around… Indeed, nobody. Only a couple of seagulls — probably
intrigued by my flying technique… They are circling around as asking to repeat
the trick…
I’m sitting in the cockpit, waiting for the soup to
be ready… I’m hungry. No surprise that the birds are burning so much energy…
I’ve been airlifted and been flying only for a few minutes… And look — I’m
hungry…
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