Blog 2nd December

Nightsong
Wed 2 Dec 2009 12:09
Dear Blog
 
Another day with no problems - been on the same tack for 3 days now heading south in anticipation of winds turning to the NE in 2 days time!
 
Today I thought I might address technical sailing issues (for those interested) rather than recount our wine consumption and breakages
 
 
This shows our position at about 0930 hrs today with 1181 miles to go ( we have set St Lucia as a waypoint at last - seems strange with  a WPT over 1000 miles away). Rolling road is fun to have , though not very meaningful.
 
Some of the technical issues which have concerned our sailing of Nightsong
 
1) Position of the keel - up or down? There is not much difference in speed - with keel down we roll less, with it nearly up we yaw less because the keel sticking out slightly from the hull gives us a long straight plate which reduces yaw like a long keeled yacht. We have decided to have it up because reducing yaw is important in preventing a gybe - the seas are big now. Roll is uncomfortable but liveable with
 
2) Wind direction and point of sail - we are sailing the boat all the time on the wind instruments about 140deg off the apparent wind or 150-155deg off the true, dependent on wind strength. This means we gybe thru about 60 deg probably nearer 65 in practice. So when the wind is E or ESE we are on port tack - north of ENE on starboard. Goosewing is impossible for a self tacker and frankly for any boat in this sea I would have thought. Anyway the decisions about when we gybe give the mathematicians on board great fun with the grib weather forecasts every day!!
 
3) Wind strength - the trade winds have truly set in and we have between 15 knots and 27 knots all the time. We did try the 100sqm Code 0 and the 140sqm gennaker early on and may again (not the small gennaker  - it is shredded) but at the moment it is all the jib as a foresail. We take one reef in the main at about 20 knots true, the second at 23 knots and the third about 26 knots and roll down the jib as necessary to balance her.
 
4) Climbing the mast at sea - never done this before but the obvious danger is swinging about up there expecially swinging to leeward, hitting things and not being able to get back to the mast. So I decided to have 2 harnesses with me as I went up in the bosun's chair. Luckily Nightsong has a gap between the mast and the sail so you can hang on but also get the harness round the mast. I changed them as I went up at every car so I was always attached and could not fall away more than 1/2m or so. The harness provided the extra safety factor of being a secondary line if God forbid the halyard were to break
 
Anyway spirits on board good, plenty of food, wine etc  - should be there by about 10th December - I see that the fastest yachts will finish tomorrow
 
AJB 02/12/09