Monday, 8 May, 2023

Strongbowofbosham
Sun 7 May 2023 17:56

The slow attrition of passage making

We are in the middle of a high (1026 mb) with little wind. What there is is SE at about 5 Kn, so we are slowly motor sailing on low engine revs making around 4 Kn. The sea state is slight. We are heading NE towards the Azores.

At 09.00 on Sunday we had a squall cloud south of us and, without much warning the seas and winds built to head us northerly with the Genoa scooping up water as we accelerated forward. It felt as though we had wind and were enjoying, not motoring, and powering forward. That lasted for an hour and then settled back to the same wind hole.

The LuckGrib forecast us the possibility of light fair winds tomorrow to the Azores as we get above the low.

One big nuisance is that when we rolled the main to reef prior to the squall reaching us we saw high on the sail one seam had opened up. Why in easy conditions? Until we reach the Azores and a sail maker we will have to use this sail partially rolled and reefed to keep the open seam securely inside the mast. I’m not a fan so far on ‘in mast’ roller furling sails.

21:13.9N 62:37.7W