More about surfing
Marinara
Ed Dolman
Wed 2 Dec 2009 15:08
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Hello Readers,
It occurs to your correspondent that you may have
been given a slightly misleading impression about the joys of mid-Atlantic
surfing. We know that our readership is becoming adept at picturing things
without pictures, so try this one. The wind is coming from more or less behind
the boat at an average of, let's say, 20 knots (although for most of yesterday
it was more like 25). Now, you add a swell of up to 3 metres following the boat
and off we go surfing down the swell at 8 knots, racing towards St
Lucia. This would be perfect and the off-watch crew would be sleeping
soundly in their bunks, whilst the helmsman would be imagining himself on a
giant surfboard skimming across the ocean. Unfortunately, the reality is more
like this. Although the wind is, generally, coming from behind the boat, we have
been experiencing some quite quick 10 - 15 degree windshifts, which
require corresponding changes of course to keep the sails filled,
constantly changing the angle of the boat to the swell. Every once in a while
the swell is, indeed, in line with boat and we do go racing down it at over 8
knots. However, most of the time the swell is coming from a variety of different
angles without any apparent pattern, making it difficult to steer in a straight
line and throwing the boat from side to side. Sometimes, the sideways force is
so strong that it's impossible to resist the swell picking the boat up and
slewing it round; you just have to let the swell do its work and then
try to straighten the boat up. As you can imagine this all makes for a less than
comfortable time below, although we're all getting good at bracing ourselves for
unexpected lurches and crashes into solid objects! Pete is sleeping
(or attempting to) in the forward cabin which has been renamed the washing
machine (although tumble dryer might be more appropriate, for at least it
is dry in there). And there we were expecting a nice gentle sail
across the ocean!
We have, in fact, altered course slightly again
this morning to go a little further south, back on a reach (with both sails on
the same side of the boat) which is more comfortable.Highlights of last
night were a ship ( 6 miles to the north of us and travelling north east,
presumably from South America), some more squalls (OK again as we could see
them coming and furled most of the genoa away in preparation) and some dolphins
at about 4am. Unfortunately, it was dark so we couldn't see them very well but
they stayed with us for about 30 minutes. The 24 hour run to noon GMT today
by the boat's log was 174 miles so that sail change made all the difference(!)
Let's see what the ARC control give us based on our position report. We now have
1078 miles to go. We're all desperately sorry about the bad weather back in
England. It's 34C and sunny again here! Bye for now.
02/12/09.
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