Gale bound in Viveiro (again)

Nano's blog.
Nigel Anderson
Thu 17 Aug 2006 16:39
Date: 17-08-06     Time: 16:00 UTC      Position: 43:40.47N  007:36.04W   Name: Viveiro 

Click here for English version;

En dag med strålende sol, ikke tegn til regnbyger, men det blåser og det blåser! Ikke aktuelt å reise ut i dette været. Det virker som vi sitter godt forankret i sandbunnen med begge ankrene våre ute på lange lengder med kjetting og bly-tau. Å sitte værfast er ganske OK sålenge det ikke regner, og vi har syslet med diverse prosjekter. Jeg har studert dynamikken i båtens bevegelse ved å skrive et dataprogram som tar imot data om hvor båten peker, retning den beveger seg i, og farten den beveger seg. Jeg fant ut at ved å henge et sjøanker (paraply lignende sak som man bruker for å minske båtens fart når man ønske å ligge i ro for å fiske) bak båten, kunne jeg begrense båtens svingninger - både i frekvens og amplitude. Dette er spennende greier for de som liker slikt. Rønnaug har lest mye (ble nettopp ferdig med "Gods in Alabama"), ellers har hun fingrene på strikkepinnene en god del, og gjort litt båtvask.
 
Det ligger bare tre båter her nå etter at flere drog igår etter episoden med at båter begynte å dregge. Den ene båten er Fransk, men vi vekslet noen ord med dem mens vi satte ankeret på nytt igår - og det var tydelig at han iallfall kunne engelsk. På vei inn til å handle med jolla idag, stoppet jeg opp ved båten deres for å spørre om jeg skulle kjøpe fersk brød og melk til dem - det var de takknemlig for. Hun var faktisk engelsk, men har bodd i Frankrike siden 1970, og nå er de pensjonister og tilbringer hele sommeren i båten. Siden de ikke hadde hatt anledning til å handle på et par dager var de glad for en invitasjon til G&T ombord Nano. De ville ikke forlate båten uten tilsyn, og hun torde ikke være alene ombord i tilfelle problem med ankeret, og hun ville heller ikke reise ut i gummijolla alene - dermed var begge fanget ombord! Siden vi ligger bare 50m fra dem, går det greit at vi sitter på dekk og passer på at båten ikke dregger.
 
Dagens bilder: Utdrag fra værkartet som viser den kraftige vinden der vi er (akuratt der ordet "GALE" står!). Bilde også fra en av de mange flotte matbutikker her i Spania. Her solgte de forresten norsk klippfisk som dere kan se midt i bildet.
 
GALE - right where we are.
GALE - der vi er!
 

English version

A day of fantastic blue sky and not a sign of a shower, but it is blowing dogs off their chains! It is completly irrelevant to think about going out on a day like today. We seem well anchored in the sand here with both anchors layed out with plenty of scope. Sitting gale bound is actually quite OK - providing it isn't raining! One gets time to all sorts of things. I spend a couple of hours studying the dynamics of the boat's movements on her anchors. By coupling the GPS to the PC, and writing a small program to capture information from the GPS about the boat's speed over ground, course over ground, and heading, I could then experiment with a few parameters to see if I could reduce the amount of swinging. What seemed to work best was hanging our a drogue from the stern. This then limits the speed the stern can move in the swings, making the frequency of the swings lower, and also reducing their amplitude. Absolutely fascinating for those who like that sort of thing! Rønnaug has read yet another book "Gods in Alabama" and done a fair bit of knitting as well as washing a bit inside the boat.
 
There are just three boats at anchor here now - the rest left yesterday after several boats dragged their anchors. One boat is French, and we briefly exchanged a few words with them as we sat the anchor again yesterday - he spoke good English. Seeing that they hadn't been out of their boat either yesterday or today, I stopped by on my way to the shops to see if they needed fresh bread and milk. They were grateful for this as they don't want to leave the boat together, she doesn't want to be left alone in case the anchor drags, and she doesn't feel comfortable alone in the dinghy either. So they were out of bread and milk. It transpired that she is English, but has lived in France since 1970 with her French husband. They have now retired and spend all their summer on board the boat, cruising around from their home port of St. Malo. As they were obviously a bit short of supplies I invited them over for G&T's. As we are only 50m apart, this means they can keep an eye on the boat from out cockpit, and quickly get back if she does drag the anchors - which I doubt can happen as he also has two anchors out - bigger than hours for a boat which is six feet shorter.
 
Today's pictures: From the weather picture showing us just where the word GALE is written. Also from one of the many great food shops in Spain where they sold "Klippfisk" (salted and dried cod) from Norway.