Quite a Change
Pemandia
Peter Fabricius
Fri 25 May 2018 07:00
Good morning!
There has been quite a change overnight. Yesterday I was loloping comfortably across Biscay with a (relatively) flat sea and sunshine. I suspected that the wind was going to increase during the night. The barometer did not move but there was a slight haziness in the sky. So I took down the spinnaker pole and furled the big reaching sail after supper.
I went to bed at 2100 (there was no one around to give me any company) and things were unchanged when I was up at midnight. I woke at around 0300. It was noisier and much more movement. The wind was at the top of Force 5 so I decided to reef. First of course I had to get dressed and get my life jacket on. I reefed both sails - always a challenge in the dark but with our in-mast mainsail furling we do not have to go on deck. It all took nearly an hour until I was settled and back on course. More comfortable with less sail and really no slower.
I was up again at 0500 when a ship approached. I made a big early alteration of course so that there was no doubt that I was avoiding him. Back to bed and when I woke again at 0630 there was no incentive to leave my bunk! Indeed it is after 0745 as I write this and I am on my first cup of tea still. It is a gray morning, wind F6 sea rough but I am doing 7.5-8knots. Later I will have to gyre but I want to stay well outside the shipping lane off La Corina which is only about 140 miles away.
Time for breakfast.
Peter
Sent from Yacht Pemandia