Enroute Report Possession to Cape Wessel
Sea Mist > Sold to New Owners July 2016
John and Cheryl Ellsworth
Mon 2 Jul 2012 01:48
LUMPY SEAS !!!! Most uncomfortable sailing since the first part of the southbound passage from Tonga to New Zealand in November 2010.
Have to be careful what you wish for: yesterday we started out with 4 hours of very pleasant easy sailing...then the wind died and/or came from the wrong direction which led to our motoring for 9 hours from 2 pm til 11 pm....then our wishes for wind arrived...big time!!!
But we're managing; tough through the dark hours last night as it was too treacherous to take a chance on going on the foredeck to pole out the head sail.......... so that made our actual track quite a bit south (about 8 nm) of our straight course rhumb line to Cape Wessel. The biger issue was the very frequently repeated collapse and then fill of the head sail as Sea Mist was whomped by these crazy swells that are just big disorganized lumps of ocean tossing us around....all 33 tons of vessel just as if she was just a cork. I was afraid our old/well used/original Yankee cut head sail made by Dolphin Sails in the UK was going to tear to pieces....but it has hung in there.
As the sun came up this morn, I ventured forward and got the spinnaker pole installed on the headsail to stablize our broad reaching configuration. That made a big difference in reducing the abuse being taken by that sail from all the rolling and resultant dump and fill of air. And, we then were able to point Sea Mist in the direction of Cape Wessel....somewhat important.....AND ..>>>>...we were able to slow the boat down as we roller reefed both headsail and main.....bringing our speed down to about 7.5 - 8 kts over the ground ...instead of the 8.5 - 9 kts with many, many peaks of 10+ experienced during the dark hours.
After the deck work on the sail configuration, I had to resort to taking 25 mg of Stugeron to settle my queasiness....and by now I am ok...but I should not stay at this screen/keyboard any longer or I won't be.
DTG to 2 Island Bay anchorage at Cape Wessel: 152 nm
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