Spellbinder's Web Diary - Sunday 1st June at sea, 1183 miles to go to the Azores

Sunday 1st June at sea, 1183 miles to go to the Azores

Spellbinder

Sun 1 Jun 2008 17:03

We sailed at 0930 on Monday, waved off by Bernie and his wife Lillian. Out into a NE force 4, with quite a lumpy sea, not the best of conditions for a first day out. During the course of the day the wind went round into the south east, and decreasd, so by the small hours of Tuesday we were under engine. We are in a novel watch bill, suggested by David of Clover 3 when we told him we would be 5 in the crew. Each one keeps a three hour watch, there are two people on watch at any time, and one person changes over each one and a half hours. Much more restful than being 4 on 4 off, and time passes quickly with only 3 hours on watch, and a change of company half way through. Just a bit confusing working out where you are in the cycle, but well worth that.
During Tuesday the wind went further round into the south, and very light. John found a flying fish in the mainsail packaway which is a highjump record in Spellbinder. Out with the genneker, which kept us going until early Wednesday morning, when force 1-2 had us back under engine. During the day we had a bit more sailing in a force 3-4, which appeared after a heavy downpour of rain as a warm front passed over, but later on it was back to the engine. By early Thursday we had a westerly 3-4, which had us sailing again under the genneker initially, and then under boomed out genoa when the wind increased. Early Thursday afternoon the wind changed from WSW to NNE, and we were back going to windward. The only good news was nearly two knots of favourable current. By midnight the wind had dropped, and it was back to the engine, which continued all through Friday, and on into Saturday, when we were finally able to set the genneker at 1000. After 5 hours it was back to the engine, not only very light south westerly wind, but now we found ourselves in a knot of adverse current, which we assumed to be a back eddy from the gulf stream to the east of the New England seamounts.
There had been much discussion of the gulf stream amongst the American boats in Bermuda, as it presents an obstacle to boats crossing it towards the east coast, giving rise to rough seas in northerly winds due to its rate of flow. Bernie had suggested before we sailed that we monitor the water temperature as we go, to try and keep in the warmer water, and therefore get the best push. His proposed method of sticking a thermometer in the lavatory pan was not required, as we have a sea water temperature sensor in the log probe.So far we have not been able to corelate the temperature with the current that we have experienced.
A bit more time under engine on Saturday afternoon, but by early evening we were back with the genneker, and by early Sunday morning there was enough breeze for the genoa. The wind has finally settled down to a favourable SSW, force 4, and we have been making around 6 knots for nost of the day. The forecast is good for the next few days, so we are hoping to leave the slack winds behind us and really start ticking off the miles.