By Th' Lee
Ellatrout3
Sun 12 Jun 2016 15:10
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"A grey mist on the seas face and a grey dawn
breaking"; Yes that is how it is, grey, mist with rain and a strong working
wind, (Force 4 to 5). The good thing is it is blowing us straight home but it
needs some managing. Modern sailing boats don't usually like the wind straight
up their tail so you have to sail with the wind 10 to 20 degrees to one
side. To achieve this you set the main sail boom out as far as it
will go on the opposite side to the wind and tie it back. At the front you put a
smaller boom on the same side as the wind attached to the mast to hold the jib
out square to the boat so that looking from the back you have a sail out square
to the boat on each side, this gives it balance. Its called 'goose winged' and
it usually works well providig you steer to keep the wind that 10 to 20 degree
on the correct side. If it gets on th wrong side this is called sailing 'by
the lee' and the danger is the wind getting on the wrong side of the main sail
and whipping it across if it is not tiad back. Of course; the waves don't
co-operate and are constantly trying to knock you off
course.
Well, you can guess what hapened; I had just been
on the foredeck, roling around in this big sea, re-organising the ropes that
hold the jib out square when we were hit by a squall the wind went from 15 to 30
knots at the same time a wave hit us on the stern quarter and the steering
couldn't cope. We were spun round and the wind got behind the mainsail and
stopped us dead. The boat was pushed onto her side with the main boom sticking
up into the air and the pole that held the jib was close to the water on the
other side. We were held in this postion unable to move and started to drift
down wind. The preventor rope holding the main back was bar tight and not on a
winch so I couldn't let it off gently, however with a struggle I managed to roll
the jib in round the forestay. That was one less problem but she wouldn't steer,
I had to release the main somehow without breakig something. I shortened the
mainsheet as much as possible to minimise the swing of the main when I let the
preventer go. It went with a bang but fortunately nothing broke, I
then had to gybe to get back on course, there was no way she would go through
the wind with no jib. All this in 30 knots of wind. I took in another reef and
tentatively put her back running before the wind. She coped and the wind slowly
returned to about 16 knots. A very lively half hour, just as well I wasn't still
on the foredeck when the squall struck?
We are goose winging along quite nicely now but
the sea has got quite big.
Now its time for a cup of tea to calm the
nerves.
Poppa/Dad/Roger
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