contrasts
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Sun 10 May 2009 19:04
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The night of the Full
Moon
37:58N 46:42W
1330hrs 10th May 2009
Contrasts really should be the title for this
offering. The night before last was bliss. The moon rose as the sun
set, bathing us and the sea in its cold bright light. The wind blew from
the WSW at 18 knots, the bottom of force 5 for the old fashioned amongst
us. Nordlys thundered along completely within herself with full main and
boomed out genoa. The bow wave sometimes arrived back near the cockpit
as a swell passed under us and the log went over 9 knots. On my watch
I stood watching this spectacle unashamedly listening to Mama Mia and
its songs on my ipod. I was almost on a high. That is what I
imagine a high to be not having 'experimented' myself. At least that is
what I am sticking to.
Last night, the actual night of the full moon could
not have been more different. We started with one reef after supper.
The moon did rise but within a quarter of an hour of doing so was hidden by a
solid blanket of low cloud. Its presence was only signalled by a
lightening of the grey sheet above us. Annette went to
her bunk and soon was in a deep sleep which is something she finds very hard to
do when at sea. I was thus loath to wake her which any use of a winch
would have done. The wind slowly rose as did the sea. By midnight we
were thundering along like a racing boat and I was in awe of the
autopilot. It was doing a fantastic job. With forty seven miles
under us in the last six hours we worked on the jumping deck and got the second
reef in and rolled some genoa away. By now there was a steady WSW 25
with frequent gusts over 30. The wind in itself was no problem, we
have often been in more, however the seas were frankly diabolical. Not
huge just very confused. The motion was some of the worst we have
experienced. Very quick jerky rolls with a fair amount of pitching
added. On this trip we have found the current is very variable, with us
one moment against the next. Whether we were in a confused current area I
do not know but it lasted for over five hours. We went onto a reach to try
and ameliorate the motion, to no avail so back to a run. Added to this
just after I had left Annette to these delightful conditions it started to
rain. When I bounced, due to the motion not my enthusiasm, out of my
bunk a few hours later she was heard to mutter that sailing was off as far as
she was concerned. Secretly I could only agree.
Now another contrast. After a cold grey dawn
the sun is shining, the wind is back down to 20 knots and the motion is what we
would expect. Not exactly still but quite manageable. Life is normal
again. In fact it is better than normal because we have a good knot of
current in our favour, a rare treat. Weather wise we expect to keep this
20 knots of wind for another 24 hours plus then have a day of calms and
hopefully a couple of days of WNW to get us very near our destination.
Wish on Ridout, we will see or 'watch this space'.
Happy times
David and Annette
PS just done a spell check and noted with amusement
that the Microsoft system did not recognise the almost universal word,
ipod!
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