36:09N 8:01W motorsailing at 7.5knots in 12knots NNW veering COG 75
Hum. Seems like the windex looked as tho it was right for years ... when in
fact it was calibrated wrongly. And more recently (when i thought it was
rubbish, showing
29knots apparent at 45degrees and sailing at 9-10knots) it was completely
correct. I discovered this by (just now) looking at the masthead V
indicator which has an included angle of about 80degrees. Whereas the
flippin windex at the helm has an included angle (yerknow, the red bit and
the green bit) of 120degrees. So they don't match! I'd always thought that
they *do* match! Bit hopeless that they don't, dammit. It may also mean
that I've been pinching (or never properly close-hauled, not sure, one or
the other) for the last four years or so. Damn.
Also, when we stopped the boat and moved around, it showed sensible wind
speeds. So what I thought was a busted windex was a re-zeroed windex showing
everything correctly. Whcih means that since Sao Miguel, or at least for
the last two days, we've been close-hauled at 40-45 degrees (not
60-65degrees) doing 8-10+ knots SOG with 25-30+ knots apparent, and every
hour or so I've put my head round the outside of the canvas dodger thing and
said "Pah! what rubbish, that's never 27knots, more like 18 apparent, 20
absolute tops AND the wind angle is rubbish as well" when in fact the windex
was erm, completely correct. Fortunately we had 2 reefs in the main (fine
to 30knots) which was "on the limit", and not "very conservative" as I had
thought. Hum. I may also have spent a fair bit of time on this transat
"learning" (actually "fooling myself and some others too") that a (real)
30knots is about 22knots since i didn't believe the (correctly reading)
windex. Interesting that I managed to convince everyone that the wind was
so much less than it was, i suppose. No wonder some crew secretly thought
the whole thing was a bit lairy. Sorry bout that. However, well done to
Lucas (who often sails with no instruments at all) who frequently (and
correctly) called for reefs in the genoa (and above 30knots indicated, for
reefs in the staysail too) regardless of the instrument readings.
I often think I'm a bit rubbish at sailing but it's not often that I
discover scientific proof to back up my suspicions. Heyho.
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