Sunday 7th of May
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Sun 7 May 2017 15:26
Last night was quite rough although only F5, but a bit after dawn the wind went down for a while to only F2 before coming back up to 5. Just as it came back there was a bang and the number 1 reefing line parted, which has happened a coupe of times before (I think we have a rogue piece of line: the old one lasted 10 years and never parted, this one parted first on its first day of use).
Not a real problem as we can always use the second reef but it’s a bore as the wind-vane self-steering is rather particular about amount of weather helm and demands just the right amount of mainsail. To reeve a new line involves taking the end cap off the boom and ‘fishing’ inside for the parted end, for which I’ve found a fish hook with the barb filed off taped to the end of the fishing rod works best. Not something I fancy doing at sea, especially not in the conditions where the need to reef is being thought about.
Otherwise all seems ok: baking bread and sorting vegetables and other domestic chores occupy the hours. In principle there is a high pressure zone to the NE which we should begin to feel - light winds and fine stable weather - in another 24 hours or so, but we need to download a new GRIB file to see how it’s moving. But little to be done whatever, just carry on the best course we can do. We have a ‘waypoint’ set for 30N, 52W, which is recommended by the routing guide we have, before turning direct for Horta.
Yesterday we saw two other yachts, Blacklock which went ahead when it got rough (she’s 16m long and steel so copes much better with rough conditions) and an unknown one we hauled down and overtook. But no other boats or freighters at all so far today.