Bermuda to Azores, Wednesday, 15th May
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Wed 15 May 2013 11:58
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OK, dear readers, firstly apologies for not posting
here yesterday.
We had another interesting day yesterday...firstly
running the engine to try and assist our quest to hurry east and catch up with
the high pressue system which would deliver us northerly, or at least, not
easterly breezes. An interesting, but ultimately futile exercise. We had
strong winds, and so the ubiquitous large waves coming at us. Persephone
is, at heart, a racing boat, and her little engine is definitely what you might
call, auxiliary.It is for coming alongside pontoons and motoring serenely out to
committee boat start lines. It is most definitely not for punching into 4 metre
waves, and the top speed we were able to acheive on Tuesday, under engine was
3.8 knots!!
So we relented, put the bow down and sailed on as
fast as we could in the sea conditions, with 2 reefs and a no 2 genoa....which
meant including a fairly large vector of south in our heading, all of which
would have to be clawed back at some point.
Still, it was a lovely sailing day, bright and
sunny, warm, even. Nigel spent the whole afternoon on the wheel, trying to
inject a little helmsmanship into the constant negotiation of oncoming sea, to
try and reduce the relentless slamming, which is wearing us down.
Karen, meanwhile, baked 30 degree bread (made at
that specific angle of heel), and for supper, whisked up a delight which
became known as deconstructed shepherds pie. Very tasty!
At dusk, the bulletin came in from Nick and
Philip.....go north for the night...once again, manana it will be better. So we
did and promptly tacked onto starboard.
This morning, we had sailed into a new
world....flat-ish sea and the wind in a fabulous new direction, enabling us to
sail towards Horta. We are currently making 6 knots over the ground, all in the
right direction, and have 366 miles to go.
Position as at 1200 is 38 36.225N 36
25.351W
All well, improving,
even!
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