24:28.7N 21:33.9W 25th November ... Are we Going the right way?
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Wed 25 Nov 2009 01:53
Hello Bloggers,
Hope you are all well back in Blighty (or wherever
you happen to be if you are off on travels). Since we spend quite some
time pouring over weather charts I noticed that there was quite a storm
surrounding your neck of the woods so I hope things are OK up your way.
Down here we are getting quite nice winds in
pretty good direction. The gusty winds with large choppy waves seem to
have abated and we are enjoying some decent trade wind activity. For us who want
to arrive safely and in some comfort winds around the 15-18 knot mark keep us
flying along under white sails at a respectable pace or can give us 8-10 knots
under yellow sails, but with the wave action coloured sails are quite hard work
as we are trying to sail as close to downwind as the sail set will allow.
Any more wind and I have to take down the yellow canvas or even start reefing,
any less and we quickly lose speed and our time to St Lucia goes
up, so for us (small crew, never done it before, limited spare sails...)
15-18 knots is like Goldilocks' porridge... just right...
The pleasant conditions allow me to resume my dog
watch habit of writing the blog and checking the weather while keeping a
watchful eye on George as he steers us through the night. Until yesterday
I was hand steering for the four hours of the night shift and up and down the
hatch helping with gybes and sail changes so had to find the time
in between shifts (less sleep). Great news for the crew but the down
side is that George uses a lot of power in these conditions as he is
constantly fighting the waves and gusts (luckily we have our generator).
While not hand steering our daily activities which in addition to turning fruit
included a resumption of the 3 minute rig check (followed by the several
more minutes of taping up chafe, changing pins etc), going up the mast to
re rig the lazy jack system, fishing for the one that got away (it was huge I
am sure though the last fish we actually landed was a plastic bag fish, it
fought like crazy), spinnaker practice and eating (and more
eating).
On the subject of eating, despite the lack of fish
(give us a chance we only put the line out for a few hours this
afternoon) we seem to be eating better and better, benefitting from the
intensive planning activities and shop research undertaken in Las Palmas, for
lunch we had spaghetti and meatballs (Snark veterans will be familiar) a hearty
lunch to make up for a long night and less exciting fare the night before (very
late lunch and Dugald feeling sea sick). Then for dinner last night we had
teriyaki pork tenderloin with salad a triumph. I do hope for some tuna for
lunch or dinner tomorrow but of course on Thursday it is Thanksgiving day, so in
honour of our American guest Chris we will be celebrating the occasion with
(according to our plan but subject to arrival of fish or special requests)
Steak on the menu with perhaps every a smoked salmon salad as an appetizer
(or even fresh sushi if available). Unfortunately I think if we
had gone for roast turkey our oven would have had us waiting till
Christmas, other thanksgiving staples like pumpkin pie are also sadly off
the menu, however we can crack our week one bottle of wine to mark the
occasion, though this will be a challenge for me since I have to stay awake on
the first watch that night.
Talking of Chris White our
anglophile American crew mate, I was happy to have a mast monkey volunteer
to grind up the mast today, We did not stop progress for the event but as
the lazy jacks needed re-installing someone had to go up to gamely up he
went. Couple of false starts with the ropes getting tangled in the spars
but all in all a great job. Not much fun as anyone who has to go up the
mast in a swell will tell you, bit harsh on the family jewels but a
good write up for Chris' magazine. If you want to follow
what Chris has to say you can Google www.yachtingmagazine.com and check
out what he has to say, there are also some pictures. I have not seen it
myself as we cannot get on line. Dugald will not go up which is a good
thing for me since I don't fancy winching the
additional 20Kg all the way to the
top. I do think it will be my turn next time though I did the mast work (2
trips) in the Las Palmas harbour.
So to the question of the day... are we
going the right way? (currently at between variable speeds
between 6.5 and 9 Knots)
It is always nice to travel in company and I am
pleased to say that we have had radio traffic all day and indeed we have seen
quite a number of boats on our way. Aside from the strange and perhaps
fake MayDay call (waiting for an update from control) that went out this morning
most has been positive news with a few tales of fixing boats, nice to know folks
are around out there. But as I sit here tonight I cannot see any
lights at all and I wonder if we have gone off in the wrong
direction. Having sailed South West for the first day or so
we have now moved on to a Rhumb Line route. For those non sailors among you
this just means we are sailing a straight line directly to St Lucia.
The non sailors are probably now saying...der why would you go another
way???...Well the thing is that traditional Atlantic crossing advice
suggests that you head south (or more south west) till the butter melts and then
head across on a due west route at around 15 degrees where you
should have very reliable trade winds and make up the time you lost taking
a dog leg route. Why are we scorning this advice? Well
looking at the wind charts I have it seems that there should
be good winds on the rhumb line route for a while to come and second
there seems to be a low pressure forming around 10 degrees which I would like to
stay away from. I want to see what other boats (with navigators aboard or
with a professional router) are doing the re-visit tomorrow. We can always
head south a but more tomorrow I suppose. Thoughts and suggestions,
well informed or not are always welcome.
Signing off for now
Ben
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