Almost there but not Quite
The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Thu 24 Jul 2014 12:12
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Our position at 12 00 on 24 July is
49:15.3N 008:02.1W . We have about 101 nm to run to Land’s End and we have
completed 71 nm in the last day. Eleven full days completed.
It seems that we have more contract
time on the sat phone, in fact two more days if I can believe what Iridium are
telling me.
July 23 – Things soon took
a turn for the worst and we were heading off into oblivion without a lot of
wind. We knew that the wind was forecast to back so improving our set so it was
just a case of hanging in there. We made the decision to motor for a few hours
in order to get some miles in and to get some northing before the wind backed.
This is only the second time we have motored for any distance and we kept the
thumper going for just over three hours. Stop it for dinner and got out the head
sail. Things were no better so we went below to have dinner and decide what to
do. The decision was to go onto the
starboard tack. This left us at right angles to our required track but gave us
loads of northings. Basically we were gambling on the forecast northerly wind
materialising. We were on this tack for about three hours.
We have had dolphins,
dolphins as far as you can see. You start to get a bit blase about seeing then
but they are still remarkable and likeable creature and they seem so pleased to
see us.
July 24 - As I came on
watch at midnight the wind was seen to have backed about 40 degrees and so we
went back onto port tack where we could hold our intended course of 66 deg true.
That’s where we are now at 06 00. Making steady progress nearly on course. The
sea is not rough exactly but incredibly lumpy, quite uncomfortable. More typical
of the North or Irish Seas.
In the last few hours we
have started to make better progress and been able to ease the sheets a little.
The sky is blue and its quite warm.
It seems ironic that we
have completed a 1000 nm from the Azores with the sails free (not close hauled)
and now with 200 nm to go we are having to play the wind shifts in order to get
in to home territory. If we can keep with this northerly airstream for the next
24 hours at the current speed of about 4 kts we will be within ‘spitting
distance’ of
Falmouth |