2 day gone towards Ria de Muros 39:37N 021:15W
Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Mon 7 Jul 2014 11:02
In position 39º37'N 021º15'W COG 047º(T) SOG 5.3kn Presently close-reaching on full genoa full mainsl. Wind now W F3. 2m seas. Very overcast and presently finely pissin' it down as drizzle.
Ria de Muros, NW Spain is 066º(T) 583NM Dist Run by log in last 24 hours 120NM Distance made good towards Ria de Moros is 109NM.
Yesterday we were able to sail until early evening, at which time we were starting to head south of west at just 3½kn so decided it was time to put sails away and donk overnight. Just after evening meal (referred to as 'dinner' by posh people) I spotted just a little wind. Maybe for us to sail on? So out goes our sails again. Unfortunately with less than 5kn wind and a +3m beam swell, these conditions just don't produce good sailing of any sort - so reverting to donk is necessary. Worth mentioning, we didn't even get as far as turning the donk off at the time! With no chance of sailing again for some hours we settled for an easy over-night at 1,250 rpm making little over 5kn towards NW Spain. Economical and reasonably quiet below. Sue turned-in at about half eight and I stood first watch until midnight. Another black overcast night it was too. Just black because I'm not sure it's possible to be blacker than black, is it? Just on 2300 UT, whilst listening for opportunity to 'ckeck-in'
using our SSB HF radio, I heard the US Maritime Mobile Safety Net (operating on 14,300kHz) call me. The guys operating the MMSN really are a great bunch and are genuinely interested in talking to and tracking HAM Maritime Mobiles, like us, for safety reasons. Sue took over at midnight and very kindly left me to sleep for almost 4 hours. My first proper sleep for two days and very welcome it was too! Right now it's nine o'clock and when Sue gets up 'will be wondering where all the time has gone? I will have to tell her I've moved our clocks forward one hour. We're now on same time as UK and will need to flog one more hour to be on same time as locals when we enter Spain at the weekend.
After just 12 hours on donk we are able to resume sailing, beam reaching in W'ly F3 and it's quite lovely. Peaceful and considerably less rolly. I'm pulling-in grib files regularly and our original plan is now falling into place quite nicely. We're going to continue sailing port tack heading E of N until mid-day'ish tomorrow, by which time the wind is due to veer to a NE'ly. So when we're no longer able to steer N of E we'll change course onto stb'd tack and head N for next couple of days or so. Then, when we get near 45ºN we'll change course again and revert to a port tack, heading S of the Traffic Separation Scheme, off Finisterre, expecting to bump into Ria de Muros on Saturday 12th, or thereabouts. We're likely to do an extra couple hundred NM and take an additional couple of days - but this keeps us out of the predicted gale force NE'ly winds off mainland Spain, which would not be nice to have to tack directly into........... and Sue would not be a happy bunny! This will therefo
re be Sue's first +1,000NM ocean passage. What will Sue give me as my reward I wonder?
Ticketeeboo MMSI 235071989 Callsign 2CED3, Ham callsign = m0hng
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