38:27N 11:28W 8knots SOG, COG 140T, wind F5 NE-NNE, baro 1020, overcast.
Probably our last full day at sea but not a great result weather wise. See,
it was forecast ages ago to be Northerlies down the coast of Portugal, and
so I stayed/edged North to swoop down to the SW point of Portugal in the
likely big seas behind me and then hang a left around that Cabo San
Vincente, off east to Vilamoura. But then it tuned out to be NE, and quite a
bit sooner than I wanted . Actually, our dedicated forecaster Bollx Wx
forecast NE at least a day ago but I was committed by then, and so since
midnight we have been having to head SE with biggish beam sea, and getting
rougher, forecast to 3+ metres later today. Erk. I had wanted to head
inshore to cross shipping lanes before dark, but all the time it was getting
rougher.
So, plan 23 now, which is to dump that inshore route, and instead head more
south on about 140T to a point just outside the TSS around Cabo San
Vincente, and cross over tomorrow morning when hopefully the winds will have
died a bit in the south,or st least we'll have daylight. This way we'll be
sailing off the wind another 20 or so degrees which means a smother ride
(though still a bit bangity) and I'll get some sleep which I didn't last
night. And we also escape the vagaries of the Inshore Traffic Zoo with
novice crew. Pretty good set of excuses for wimping out eh?
Also confirmed to myself today how rubbish I am at sail trimming . The boat
is doing 6.7 knots, so we pull a few ropes to make it (eventually) hit 8.3.
Hurrah! Two minutes later it's back down to 6.5. Poxy thing. One chap did
take us out and said you could just see when the shape of the sail was
right, and I foolishly said oh yes. But really, they're triangular. I reckon
there oughta be some nice tables and calibrated ropes which tell you exactly
how everything is to be set for all the wind angles and all the wind
strengths, or perhaps a nice computer could sort it out. There's something
worth inventing, worth a ton of money to Americas cup teams who could sack
all those relentlessly cheerful Aussies .
Anyway I am gonna go get some sleep.
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