From Sicily to Palma, night 2
SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Sat 12 Oct 2019 23:56
|
38:25.591N 009:29.732E
2319 UTC
The second midnight in the Sea is
approaching.
It has a bin a long, and a slow day. Full
of 'controdictions' -- it was sunny and cloudy at the same time,
warm -- the temperature in the boat went up to 31 dergree C, even
now, it is 26.3 C -- and still the 'fall day', filled like
'not a real summer day'.
We have made our first 100 nm, and I hope we
made it in the right direction. But most was done before the
morning... During the day -- the progress was very slow. If we were doing
about 4 knts, I was considering -- we are moving... But
that was predicted and expected. Before leaving Trapani,
I knew that the progress on Sardinia approach would be
slow. Because of the wind direction, it would be impossible to
use both sails at the same time... ( genoa has been expected
to be blocked by main, and that exactly what is happening even now...
)
The section option to leave Trapani was to wait
about 15 hours. The weather supposed to be better... But then, you
have to trust the models... Well, I preferred to leave... As typing,
I'm still waiting and hoping for the weather, but closer to
Sardinia...
At the mean time, we are practically moving
towards West, along 38:25' N degree... The wind is 140-150 degree on
port side...
We are running only main. ( The wind is changing
all the time, veering and backing, which makes opening genoa -- a bit of
useless... a lot of sail flopping, but no help ). I still hope that the
weather models will stop telling fairy tales, and at certain point, I would be
able to run both sails normally. We will see...
There are few nuasances during the passage so
far...
The favourable wind, about 15 knts is promissed (
by most models ) from the SSE... Though the wind has not arrived
yet, the swell does appeared late in the evening... Though the
waves are not high, may be 0.5m , they enouh to make the autopilot
to work hard... which put the load on the batteries... Though there
has been a lot of sun during the day, it has been not enough for solar
panels to compensate the load and charge the batteries. So, I have to run
a generator a lot!
I said that I would try to use the Squid routing
module, to try to navigate this passage... Well... Though we were doing a
good speed during the first night -- much higher then the Squid boat
description, during the day -- we lost what we gained, and about 5-7
hours behind ' the schedule'... ;-) I think it is due to a couple of
reason:
-- I have not seen the wind as the model suggested
-- neither in strength, nor in direction...
-- I do not understand, how they are
maintaining 5+ knts speed, with the wind angle 140-150 degrees to
port ( or starboard tack ).
My boat is loosing genoa at those
angles, and consequently - the speed;
-- the captain, who is sitting in front of the
computer now, likes to talk, but he has no idea how to sail...
After resolving all above -- we would be fine on
our next passage! Or, at least, better.
All for now. Everything is OK. We keep
going under the full Moon and stars!
Talk soon,
M.
-------------
COG: 265
SOG: 4.5-5.5knts
Wind: ~130T, @ ~10-12 knts
Seas: ~ 0.5m @ SE
|