51:54.9N 18:28.1W
Sula Sula III
Mark
Sun 16 Jul 2023 11:57
The seas may well have some 3.5m waves in amongst them, very difficult to tell as I am never sure when half way up has been reached. Certainly when I am looking up from the bottom of a trough, there looks like more than 20ft to the top of the next one. Still plenty of wind, in the lulls speed drops to under 6 knots but I'm not giving her any more sail until the gusts drop below 27.
16.00hrs. been busy.... There is a blue hole developing in front of us now (apparently) but that might all change of course. I am going to make a bit more South than the models suggest, just to see if I can skirt underneath it. Had to set up the preventer which meant a trip to the bow (very wet) as even at 125° to the wind, one of these big waves could spin us into a gybe...... Unlikely I know but bad news if it happened in a big gust?
Looks like arrival has moved to Thursday now.
17.15hrs. That was lucky!! Went to let a little main out, so hove to and as I go through the wind I am pulling in mainsheet.... And it all goes slack. The shackle holding the lower block to the track had come undone! Luckily I had only loosened the preventer so that held the boom in place. Could have been very messy if that had come adrift in 30+ knots on a screaming broad reech.😨 I have tightened it with a shackle pin but will cable tie it when it all calms down a bit.
The ramblings have got a bit boaty..... But that is only because that is all I am thinking about ATM....I am sorry for the sparsity of unrelated nonsense, I will try and rectify as the wind dies down a bit (see chart below)
05:00. 16/07. Wind not dropping as much as they predicted. In the 5 hrs from midnight we have averaged 7 knots according to the plotter, but Augustnot wanders a fair bit so will have to see how that translates at midday. A vessel has appeared on AIS; similar course to ours....might actually see this one in a few hours.
12.00hrs. Hoover out this morning.....I can hear Tim Smee saying "standards dear boy....standards" and of course he is right; everything needs to be ship-shape. Of course the big tidy up was to delay a fairly significant decision. The models are split on the best way to go to beat the developing hole. Most have gybed and are heading South East, but while I am on the making gybe (I am making between 80° and 90°) I am loath to make that move. Will have to see how it all pans out. I could always call in somewhere in the South West of Ireland.... Now that I know charts are not essential to make a landfall?😉
