Spinnaker fun.
Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Wed 8 Dec 2010 13:15
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This is the missing diary entry from
8/12/10
24 hour Run Log trip
(through the water)
145.4Nm
24 hour Run
GPS
(overground)
145.2Nm
Midday wind and weather Force 4 NE Sunny with cumulus. Distant squall clouds to the S. Sea state: Significant swell from the north with following waves topped by white horses. Temperature: 30.5C Distance to go
1,558Nm
We have carried the spinnaker for the last 24 hours
with obvious benefit to the days run. The calm sea and moderate winds enabled
the autohelm to cope ok during the afternoon with the watchkeeper tweaking the
bearing on the plus and minus buttons. During the night the more variable winds
caught out the watchkeepers on a couple of occasions and the skipper had to
leave his bunk to unwrap the chute from the forestay. As predicted the wind has
freshened this morning and the sea state more boisterous so, to keep the chute
going, we have been hand steering. Another challenge for the watchkeepers to
catch the waves and keep it full. The rewards are worth the effort with an
average this morning of 7kts and the gps showing over 10 kts at
times.
Yesterday evening after dinner, (John served up
Grand Banks Delight from the cook book.) we called up the vessel
"Johann Smidt". We had been gradually catching them 11 miles off their port
quarter and as she had the speed and bearing characteristics of a sailing
boat we thought we would make contact. The Johann Smidt turned out to be a sail
training ship making it's way to Bridgetown, Barbados. They were bemoaning the
length of their passage having left Santa Cruz Tenerife before us. We could
see their lights through the night but have not seen them since dawn. No doubt
we will find out what sort of a ship she is in
Bridgetown.
We plan to carry on as we are for as long as
possible today and then as the wind is forecast to increase further and back we
will drop the chute before dark and continue under genoa and main, reassigning
steering to the autohelm and setting a course to regain the northing lost while
we have been chasing the miles with the chute.
We had a problem with our chart plotter a couple of
days ago when the screen went blank. The explanation was that as it was in
direct sunlight all morning it had overheated. Now with a piece of aluminium
cooking foil held over it with clothes pegs it functions perfectly even in the
hottest sun.
Sea state and hand steering make fishing, eating
and other domestics a bit more difficult but we are happy to swap easy living
for miles.
EJW
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