Respite
Digiboat's "Product Testing"
Simon Blundell
Thu 21 Nov 2013 17:13
38:10.82S 035:48.40E
1621z 21/11
A wild and stormy
night when the wind turned to the W and increased to 35-40kn with gusts to 50kn.
As the wind backed W we turned more N to get back up to our layline - and into
ideally better W wind band for our journey E. Around midnight we gybed and
shortened sail to a slight reef on the staysail and just a hint of main. With
the gale winds from the quarter we bounced and pounded through confused seas at
10-12kn. Too challenging the conditions for the autopilot so it was hands-on for
the night with Luc pulling a long stint at the wheel leading up to midnight with
help from Kay and Robert, then the gybe at midnight and we settled into slightly
easier sea conditions, but still gale force winds, and I managed to
convince the autopilot to play nicely around 4am - but only with constant
supervision.
During the morning
the seas all chose to come from one direction although still quite chopped up
and confused, and the winds eased off to around 25-30kn with occasional gusts to
35kn. So mostly an easy day sail today after last night's washing
machine so possible to get some more jobs done as the rolling is less
violent. Ryan's been making more of the foot switches work and Robbo's exchanged
a sump pump while Kay has pre-cooked another few months worth of meals and Rob
and Rod just stay clear of the chaos and keep an eye on HAL's
steering.
Mostly sunny today
so tucked under the dodger in the aft cockpit has been pole position. About the
hardest part of today's watches has been keeping an eye on the trailing
albatross to see if they ever flap their wings.
Over the 36 hrs
after turning off the engine last time and charging along into, then with, the
strong winds, our best 24 hr run came in at 239 nm - an average speed of 9.96
knots! Gives us a solid target for improvement over the next 4000 miles.
Currently averaging around 8 kn with just the staysail and corner of main but
once we reassemble the boat and all get some rest we'll fly more dacron and wind
the speed up again.
SJB