waves and butter

True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Thu 12 Dec 2013 22:42
Position 14:52.10N 048:25.50W
 
Continued all last night with poled out genoa and two reefs.  Come morning we had to revert to a broad reach as wind and sea grew. But 3 hours later we were able to revert to poled out genoa, heading on the rhumb line to St Lucia, and we had a great day’s sail, with 178 Nm under the belt (186 if you ignore the time change).
 
The day then spoiled itself as dusk came;  big waves (5m) from seemingly random directions and an increasing wind (25 Kn+) made the use of the pole untenable, and we are again broad reaching away from the rhumb line, and even that requires continuous helsman attention to prevent us being knocked sideways by random waves, so again we plan to double team, and work four on, four off.  Meanwhile below decks the violent random motion has made life quite uncomfortable.  Hopefully conditions will moderate, otherwise it will be a painful last few days.
 
And to cap it all, we have virtually run out of butter, so Toby was not able to make his chocolate brownies!
 
Ah well – nobody said crossing the Atlantic would be easy