A Bit of Everything
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Thu 4 Jun 2009 16:46
Course: East Nor'east Speed 6 knots
Wind: North, moderate
Weather: Sunny, mild. Sea: slight, low swell
Day's Run: 78 miles
And the fog came back, but fortunately only for a while, then came some rain, it got dark, then light winds, then no wind, it became light, then came a little wind, plus some more fog (argghh!), then the fog cleared, it was overcast, and then some more wind and now lots of sunshine, you beauty. So the day has improved markedly. When I got up this morning to look around at about 5.30 it was broad daylight so I thought it was about time we advanced clocks an hour, plus I happened to notice as I glanced at the compass we were pointing the wrong way again, this time west, we now had a light head wind from the northeast. This has since freshened and backed into the north allowing sheets to be eased and we are now making a brisk six knots on a close reach.
Also this morning I noticed that the waves were much larger than they should have been for the wind at the time, which was virtually nil, and there were strange disturbances all around. I wondered what could be the cause, interaction between currents, certainly the water was very deep but I checked my electronic charts anyway. Sure enough we were sailing, or rather drifting to be more accurate, over an underwater mountain range, and while the top of the mountain was 3,000 meters below us, it was rising from an ocean floor a couple of thousand meters below that. It is interesting how these deep bottom features still have a very noticeable effect on the surface, definitely advisable to steer well clear of them in any sort of unsettled weather.
At the moment I am navigating on graph paper, the scale of the paper chart I have of the North Atlantic is very small and only intended for plotting great circle routes. When we get closer to Ireland, this is assuming we will end up somewhere near where we are aiming for, not a certain outcome of any ocean crossing, then we'll break out a paper chart again.
All is well.
Bob Cat:
I'm busy right now, no comment, Zzzzzzz