Kotari blog
Kotari
Thu 3 Dec 2020 10:17
Day 10 - Tuesday 1st December
Summary of updates,
- Mark and myself have had a quick update to our hair situations, unfortunately for him I think I did a tidier job to my own hair than I did to his!
- Richard is giving off mixed messages in his relationship to the spinnakers
- Carols bruises/war wounds are increasing in density
- Eddie is still banging his head on the companionway hatch
- There have been no fish… :( (this changes)
——
Cracking dinner last night and treated ourselves to half way beer with Nachos and salsa before the highly rated butternut squash pasta (with dangerous amounts of garlic)
We were hoping that the gentle days conditions would continue and allow us to fly the spinnaker through the light of the full moon, however some v moody looking clouds that were going to give us anxiety all night were hunting us down so we dropped it around 2100. Our latest deliberate drop so far.
The wind did indeed pick up a bit and swing more SE between 0100 and 0400 so since then we’ve been charging on a broad/beam reach on course on port tack.
Sea state has become a little harder to sleep in the forward cabins but could be so much worse!
This morning is the first time we’ve not received our position updates from ARC and a weather update by 1200. I’ve got our own weather info which depressingly looks totally balls in the long term.
By Thursday at current we are do start losing wind (less than 10 knots) and that holds until Sunday where my data ends…
This gives us a few options to think about
1. Do we try and sail through it using spinnakers to our advantage and keeping the shortest distance travelled as the goal, as well as hoping that the forecasts inaccurate
2. Do we go South and aim to keep high wind speeds/boat speeds but add over 250 nm to our journey? This equates to 1 and 1/2 days at sea travelling at 7 knots…
3. Do we go North where the light wind area is very narrow (around 20-30 nm) and try and get through it quickly while adding only 100 miles or so to our route…
4. Do our engine checks…. Boooo
Time will tell, but this was what I thought a few of the boats where heading South to avoid, I don’t like following the pack but am intrigued to see the positions at 1200.
My feeling at the moment is to continue sailing the shorter course as we are, perhaps heading slightly south to prepare for heading further south if the forecast stays like this over the next 2 days!
Position reports came in a bit late today but still doing well. Peter Von S had a big day miles wise (190nm) which is our record day too.
——
1540 on 1/12,
So new plan is to plan for the worst and head south west. This big old wind hole looks like its only getting worse.
I have a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox.
I’ts quite top secret, and very complicated, but according to the forecast which we know if always 100% accurate, there is a 12 hours period where we can sail through/around the wind hole if in the right place and the right time… so we aim to be at the right place at 0600 on the 5th.
My grand plan is that in the coming light E/SE winds, by being further west we will have a better wind angle and there fore speed to sail around these light wind patches… but to be honest I’m totally making this up as we go…
Hope it makes for some good armchair sailing back at home! Last I heard as we sailed out of signal range on the 22nd was that Alex Thompson had buggered his boat again… so the vendee globe might be even more Sam Davies focused!
Think lockdown is due to end tomorrow!
Hope that’s still the case.
Anyhow, we’ve got a couple of days of reaching, only had white sails (non spinnaker sails) up today and averaging 7.5 knots which is good. Might get the colourful ones up tomorrow depending on wind strengths etc but basically the crunch time is going to be around Friday to see if we can get around this light winds to the south and west!
If we can then it’s looking good for a Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning finish!
If we get stuck in a hole for a day or 2…. Who knows…
Tomorrow morning should be another big milestone…. Less than 1000 miles to go by lunch is the plan!
Whoop
——
Big moment happened at 1830 this eve, finally caught, landed, filleted and ate our first fish! Credit must be given that Cabin buoy Dennis reeled in, filleted and cooked a cracking 2 course Mahi-mahi meal. Mark gaffed and landed the Fish. Bloody beautiful thing it is as well. Richard would say it was THIS big…. It did 2 courses for the 5 of us! About High spirits and looking forward to fish for dinner tomorrow too (because we’re going to be on a catching spree now….).
Another thing… we’ve ended up sailing up wind…. The boats at and angle… what’s this bollocks we didn’t sign up for this! Complaint over, to make up for it we are surfing on a close reach at 9 knots and hammering it SW at the moment… coming for you Peter von Seestermühe!
Some notes on our competitions, I’ve learned that this boat has a wooden mast, was built in 1936 (or 34) and is an extreme pain to keep up with.
——
0134 - 2/12
I really don’t like squalls, particularly the bag of s*** (aka no wind) they leave behind once they’ve gone through
That is all, rant over
——
So we never really recovered any wind from the squall just before 0200 this morning so in the end (after some time of sails flapping and flogging around, decided to start the engine and attempt to motor our way out to find it again.
We have also heard our first radio contact for what seems like a week now! Yuna and another boat (we thing Binx as they’re closest) chatting about motoring together as Yuna’s satellite phone isn’t working to get updates etc! So… after 10 days of pure sailing we’ve finally had to use a bit of engine! Don’t think we’re alone looking at the estimated position
Now it be the case of working out how buggered the weather forecast really is…. Do we really need to head SW of the waypoint to get around this weather… probably. We are now sailing nicely again dead downwind with a NE wind. Weather forecasts all over say the wind should be E/SE… so its all a bit wrong. The key now is simply to dodge more squalls! We’ve had enough of that b*****ks.
——
So ultimately the forecast doesn’t seem to have changed that much so we are carrying on with the head SW plan. Its been a mixed day. Had an epic few hours of spinnaker reaching with an average of 10 knots to then have a few hours wallowing at 5 knots… our goal of a 16 day finish is slipping out of reach but hey ho!
FISH TIME
Last nights shout potentially jinxing us seems to have paid off
Caught another fish this eve! I had the honour of landing my first Tuna and with the cabin buoy overseeing I even filleted it! Not sure my hands will lose the fish smell but hey ho that’s the price!
Tuna ceviche it is for tonights starter! Yum. It was only around 16 inches so not as big as yesterdays Mahi-mahi (almost a meter long)
Weather looking pretty dodgy out there again tonight! Squall dodging is the order of the night. That and sailing fast!
So final updates of this blog are:
- There have now been 2 fish caught and eaten!
- Not looking so good for a 16 day finish with this big patch of light wind between us and the Caribbean! (If you’re looking at the tracker wondering why lots of people aren’t going the right way…)
- The motor has been used annoyingly, we were obviously hoping to avoid this but it was to save our sanity and the sails while they flapped themselves to death in a wind hole and short waves.
- Its getting hot… underwear are becoming the preferred choice of clothing (for me at least) - in need of a swim!
- the boat is gleamingly clean after all the rain/squalls and whatnot from last night!
Thats about it.
Hope you’re all out of lockdown and getting your December Booze on!
Signing off!
RP