First Nine Days 40:05.8N 46:14.6W Miles from Newport 1152 Miles to Terciera 892
Ellatrout3
Wed 16 Jul 2014 02:16
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We've had sun and very wet rain most of the day. As I said
yesterday if you stayed on deck you got wet very quickly and if you went below
and closed the hatch to keep the rain out you sweltered and got wet
anyway! One thing about going west against the wind if it does rain you
can tuck behind the spray hood whereas if you are running with the
wind the rain just blows in. It was a warm and pleasant day
really despite the rain and it ended with a blood red sky colouring the whole of
the western horizon. The man in the moon must have seen it and stayed in bed
because he did not get up until well after it got dark. All the stars came
out before he got up to hide them with his silvery glow.
I thought you might be interested in the difference in
going west in difficult conditions and going east in good conditions.
It doesn't look that bad at first glance until you realise that going east
I am sailing straight to my destination whereas going west I was sailing
much of the time at 45 degrees (and sometimes a great deal more than 45
degrees) to my destination so the miles achieved going west were about
30% less (cos 45 is about 0.7, if I remember correctly) so the true
mileage would be nearer 518
All afternoon today the wind was blowing exactly straight
to the Azores so I took down the main and put up the working jib and the furling
genoa set on either side of the forestay so that she was pulled along rather
than being pushed along by the mainsail stuck out on one side, It is
really a time for setting your big coloured spinnaker but not for a singlehander
in these conditions. It's a good set up taking the boat straight down the
eye of the wind. Unfortunately when I got the mainsail down I found
another rip in it.. As luck would have it the sun had been shining for the
prevoius half hour and the sail came down dry so I rushed about getting my
self adhesive sail cloth and sticking it before the next shower. I think
it's an effective repair?
Lastly my grandson Nathan, I've been told has not been too
well these last two days. I hope somebody reads this and tells him that
his Poppa hopes he will soon be feeling better.
Love Popa/Dad/Roger
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