A Box of Chocolates
The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Mon 21 Jul 2014 12:15
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Our position at 12 00 on 21 July is
46:59.6N 013:48.4W . We have about 369 nm to run to Land’s End and we have
completed 121 nm in the last day. Eight full days completed.
July 20 – Clouds are closing in the
wind strength is increasing and moving onto the starboard quarter. We are now on
a starboard broad reach and doing a speed in the upper 5s lower 6s. This should
continue for the rest of the day if you can believe the forecast.
By teatime we were going at a
healthy click with speeds up in the 6s with all sails up. I think I said in the
past all sails up on a run in a blow can be quite comfortable but can easily
change to chaos if you have to go off the wind onto a reach for any reason. We
can cope with this minor risk during the daytime but chasing around the foredeck
in my underpants trying to sort out the mess in the night is not what I
want. Being as we are not here to break speed records we decided to reef
down a bit. This also made cooking a little less rolly polly and as before seems
to make little difference to our speed.
We are delving into the depths of our
provisions. Tonight’s dinner time delicacy was organic Brazilian beef in corn
with crushed potatoes, seared onion rings, shredded wild carrot and drizzled
with Houses of Parliament brown sauce. For dessert our chef served up Azorian
bananas smothered with creme anglais.
July 21 – As we are on a broad reach the head
sail is screened from the wind to some extend by the main. Therefore it can be a
bit floppy filling and then not filling. It can be poled out to improve things
but it was OK loose. I’d just turned in at 09 00 when there was a call for help
for Norm. The head sail had hour glassed. This is where the top and bottom of
the sail are separated by a twist, usually twists in the sail. Its
normally associated with spinnakers. This was the first time I have experienced
it with a head sail. It can be difficult to get sorted. After pulling and
shoving from the cockpit to no avail I had to gear up and head up to the bow.
With me turning the head sail reefing drum and Norm pulling on the head sail
sheet we finally sorted it without damage to the sail or crew.
The morning was grey, drizzly with
poor visibility. A moderate sea with a slight swell. The wind has dropped a bit
so I have taken out our reefs. We have already done a 100nm and it still only 07
15 so we should get a reasonable distance in today. That’s good but there looks
to be a few holes in the wind awaiting us further on. Hope the forecasts are
wrong.
Every day has been different. If we
get a good day the following day can be indifferent. The wind is from this
direction then that direction. We have light head winds forecast. This
variability is typical of this route, there is tendency for westerly winds but
anything is possible and at any strength. This route is a complete box of
chocolates.
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