Log Day 15/16 - "Finally some decent wind!"

s/v Safena's blog
Simon Ashley
Tue 11 Dec 2018 04:20
Another quiet night aside from one squall on Nina’s watch that she and Safena dealt with admirably. By morning the wind was up. Throughout the day we have had in the region of 20kts plus. With full main and poled out Genoa speeds have been 8-10kts. The sea has been quite rough but the sailing was exhilarating and in fantastic weather.

We furled the Genoa in preparation for a squall this morning. On the back side of this winds were 25kts or so. With the Genoa back out we hit 13kts, a new record for Safena!

We gybed this morning onto port tack. It was quite challenging for Andy and I working on the foredeck in the conditions but with Nina in “the pit” it was probably the slickest gybe and pole reset we have done. In the process, Andy and I performed a prophylactic replacement of the dyneema strop at the end of the pole.

We are starting to see more yachts as we get closer to St Lucia and everyone coalesces. We have been chasing another yacht, Gitana, throughout the day. Initially she was about 8 miles from us. This evening she was 1.5 miles from us! We talked with them on VHF as well as Tin Tin which was fun. We will drop back as we head into the night with our reduced sail plan (Genoa only).

Noon position 15 55.49 N, 52 44.15 W

Of concern is the fact that as we approach the Caribbean we are seeing more and more patches of Sargassa weed some of which appears quite dense.

For lunch we had hot turkey baguettes with gravy. For dinner Andy cooked shepherds pie.

Simon