47:46.5N 011:43.2W Midday (BST) Fix 11 June 2010 What Is Normal Anyway?
Oboe D'Amore's Web Diary
Nigel Backwith
Fri 11 Jun 2010 12:58
2010
View our progress on Google Earth at: http://blog.mailasail.com/oboe
GPS Position: 47:46.5N 011:43.2W
Sea Miles (previous 24 Hours): 159nMs
Sea Miles to date: 4,165nMs
Present Course Over Ground: 056°M
Present Boat Speed 7.4kts
Average Boat Speed (previous 24 hours): 6.6kts
Average Boat Speed to date: 6.2kts
Estimated GPS Position in 24 hours time: 43°:52'N 021°:57'W
Sea State: Moderate
Wind Speed and Direction: 23kts NNW
Barometric Pressure: 1011mB
What started off 5 days ago as a steady build up of wind and seas sufficient
to douse the normal upbeat nature of the skipper and crew has continued
unabated. Put simply, the wind is coming from where we are trying to go and
no amount of black magic or indeed legitimate physics will allow a sailboat
to take power from a full on headwind and drive the boat forward. So we
bear off at an angle to the wind sufficient to get some forward motion out
of it and point towards either Wales or Brittany depending on the angle we
choose. Thus we pound into the oncoming waves whipped up by the wind and we
put up with a regular dousing when a wave breaks over the cockpit. Rob
coined the phrase "like being in a washing machine on the end of a yoyo!"
years back when we sailed round Britain together and that about sums it up.
It's pretty noisy too when the boat drops down from a wave to find only 3
metres of air before landing with a crash into the next trough and it does
this every minute of the day and night! This is normality. Some would say
torturous. I wouldn't go that far but it is hard to endure at times. I'm
not whingeing, I promise! I'm simply trying to explain what sailors who
cross oceans are bound to experience from time to time. I have to say I was
living on borrowed time where that was concerned and now have my
comeuppance.
On a more cheerful note, we are only 340 nMs from Dartmouth and for the time
being pointing right at it and making good speed. Ryan's dad, our shore
contact tells us to keep our chins up and that there is beer on ice already
waiting. Dave, I'm a bitter drinker, an aging dying breed I know, but I
prefer my ale flat and at room temperature!
I contemplated entitling this blog entry "Danger Zone" when I heard Kenny
Loggins blaring it out of the cockpit stereo speakers yesterday, streamed
from Ryan's iPod. When I say stereo speakers I should have said mono
speaker, as one of them seems to have drowned. I thought it might worry
friends and family to think of us in the Danger Zone, so I dropped the
title. Don't fret, we survived the Bermuda triangle and we'll survive this
last stage as we enter the Western Approaches and the English Channel.
Sharks are however circling Oboe, perhaps in the hope that we might throw
ourselves overboard in despair. Two of them popped up yesterday afternoon
no more than 10 metres off the bow. I thought for one split second that we
might hit them but they nonchalantly slid past, licking their lips. Sorry
chaps you're out of luck!
Nigel
Date: 11 June 2010