Sines to Las Palmas
Moonshine
Sat 7 Oct 2006 13:02
We left Sines with a forecast of force 2-4 northwesterly for the first 4
days to Las Palmas, over forecast swells of 2.5 metres reducing to 1.5
metres. Expecting a nice beam reach to Las Palmas. Others were doing the
same.
The bloody realty by day two was northeast 5, immediately up to 7, and then
up to gale 8 on Wednesday over a sea that was never less than 3 metres until
today, but on Wednesday, rose to about 6 metres,bigger than houses for goodness
sake, and through the night very much more than that, with breaking tops, and
occasional (every 10 minutes or so for the whole night) cross seas that bought up
small mountains, with tops that kept falling off. - Sometimes the bit that fell off
hit us - sometimes we were in the bit that fell off!
It really was unpleasant. We set the boat up best we could, and went
indoors and pretended it wasn't happening.
Repeatedly reading the forcast to see where we had gone wrong did not help -
and it's the first time I've noticed the liability disclaimer. This reads -
here's your forecast - it could be wrong - it's not our fault - you can't
sue. Apparantly the unexpected hot weather over Africa had produced the
gale. - Africa hot - Unexpected! - nevermind.
Anyway, thats all in the past. The weather and sea started improving
yesterday, and that continued through the night. We have gentle sunny
downwind sailing now with fishing lines out , beer cooling, and expected
arrival at Las Palmas at about noon on Sunday.
I'll forget Wednesday night but remember the beer. I think it's a character flaw!
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