Going Slow

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Fri 8 Mar 2019 04:25

Noon Position: 38 23.6 S  141 07.8 E
Course: ESE  Speed: 1 knot
Wind: W, F1 – light air
Sea: slight. Swell: SW, 2.5 m.
Weather: overcast, mild
Day’s run: 88 nm

As forecast, the wind has remained light but fortunately, as hoped, has for the most part remained strong enough to keep the sails drawing and Sylph making way mostly in the right direction. Thus, we have managed to put a respectable 88 miles under her keel in the last 24 hours and we are now back in Victorian waters a little to the west of Portland.

This forenoon the wind was too light to keep the mainsail full and it was slatting badly so, in an attempt to reduce wear and tear while still make some headway, I dropped the main and set the drifter, holding it out in the light breeze by leading its sheet through  a block in the end of the boom and using a preventer to hold the boom out to starboard. This helped for a while and certainly quietened things down; however, coming on deck for my regular look around, after the drifter had been up for about an hour, I found the seam of an upper panel had come apart.  So, it was down with the drifter and back up with the main.  Fortunately, the wind has freshened just enough so that the mainsail is remaining full and no longer slatting.  I wonder how long for.

All is well.