AZAB Day 7 Sat 8th June - Grey/wet, then rough/windy
Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Sat 8 Jun 2019 21:46
I knew I shouldnt have tempted fate by writing about how lovely yesterday was, and how we felt like we were getting there. Today has been quite a day!
Early morning and the wind came in with grey wet clouds, and it felt like we were in the Channel. There was a short wave set coming directly at us, and the wind got up to 18-24kts, so yet again we were beating. The motion was horrible, and unfortunately Emilia was seasick. She's a plucky little thing though, and soon bounced back and we had a lunch of plain pasta. I have to admire her resilience, she's almost always chirpy although I can see she's been fed up a few times. We both felt a bit low today - I couldnt bring myself to do normal tasks like sort the sails out. I think I didnt sleep well over the last 24 hrs because of the motion.
The wind shifted as it was due to, and then couple of hours beating into a more pleasant 10-12kt breeze, and then at around 1700 the full Northerly kicked in. Basically we've just sailed straight through another low pressure and this is the back of it - strong Northerly. The forecast only said about 19kts - well we've had 25-30kts constant since 1700 and its showing no signs of abating. More scary is the waves - 3-4 m and some are breaking. Luckily for the first time this trip the wind is abaft the beam so we have it on the stbd quarter and the Aries is doing a sterling job of keeping us lined up to the waves, although now and then we get slewed round and take some solid water across the boat and cockpit. We have 3 reefs in and 2 in the jib, Happy Saturday night! Another full-on day on the AZAB.
Less than 400 miles to go as of 2100 tonight.