38:00.627S 056:31.412W

Spindrift
David Hersey
Mon 14 Jan 2008 16:07

 

Sunday 13:00 13/1/08

 

We didn’t manage top get away by 12. Its about 25 degrees but feels cool.  Clear blue sky.  Perfect day for a sail.The check in check out procedure here is really odd.  When we checked in, I had to  go the the yacht Club authority to have an assigned space, then to the Port Police to get an entry permit.  Then to customs and immigration who said they would visit the boat.  I went back twice and they duly wrote down where the boat was and thanked me for seeing them, but never came to visit.  To check out you pay the berthing fees and take your receipt to the  port police who give you an exit permit. No customs, no immigration.

 

When leaving the harbour I suddenly thought we were going into a land locked bay as there was a very definite brown line all around the horizon.  It turns out to be some sort of ugly brown something in a current  several miles wide  and part way through it you see a defined blue line in the distance.    We have 25 knots of wind just behind the port beam and are doing over 10 knots.  SPINDRIFT is clearly ready to get on with it and in a hurry to escape this brown whatever it is.

 

18:00

Well we’re certainly off to a flying start, boat speed rarely drops below nine knots and as I write this we touch 11.8 knots.  The wind holds at ENE  well behind the beam averaging over 30 knots.  We’re riding down the Western  side of a big high. This is great sailing but am not too keen with the thought that this will be turning against us in a few days.  We put a second reef in the yankee and a first reef in the main to make it more possible to cook. Boat speed drops a bit but we’re still making 8.5-9 knots.

 

Bit of confusion about what time zone to use.  It seems Port Stanley is on GMT-2 hours which is the same as Punta del Este, but the rest of the Falklands known as “The Camp” are on GMT -3.  We’re going to stay on GMT -2. Obviously.

 

21:00

It isn’t often you have dinner al fresco running downwind in a NE Force 8 gusting 40 plus knots.  We furled the Yankee completely as the wind has gone even more behind and we don’t want to gybe, even so the first problem is to keep the place mats on the table, the second is to keep hold of your cutlery and the third is to keep your food on your plate. Plus of course not to lose your wine glass.

We managed.

 

 

14/1/08 Midnight

Wind still NE Force 7. Boat speed still 9 knots plus. We’re resisting poling out as its much better for sleeping not to,  currently  making 10 degrees more Easting than I’d like.

Several layers now required in the cockpit as it’s chilly.

 

15/1/08 9AM

 

I went to bed with over 30 knots of wind and woke up with barely 15. As boat speed was 4 ½ knots I decide to motor.  With the wind asleep it’s very warm and clear already.  We had taken the bimini down last night but up it comes again for shade.

 

13:00

We’ve been sailing for the last hour but it’s not very good. Barely 5 knots of boat speed.

We will try the parasailor spinnaker when Steve surfaces but I don’t know how much of an improvement it will be.

Any way the 24 hour run was 203 miles with  3 hours of motoring.  Mar Del Plata is 50