We are on the way!
Reservoir Dogs
Patrick Farrell
Tue 25 Nov 2014 18:17
Our start was at 11am and we started quite well, probably in the first 20 to cross the line. That wasn’t difficult to be honest because there were some slack performances to be witnessed. Then followed a storming days sailing down the east coast of Gran Canaria. The wind was variable around 20 to 25 knots from the NNW, but there were occasional gusts up towards 30 knots at times. The swell was 3 to 4 metres following days of heavy wind, so it was a big wake up call for the fleet right from the start. We sailed for most of the daylight hours with one reef in the main and the genoa poled out on the opposite side. It worked well and we believe that we had a good day versus the fleet. The top speed achieved was 10.4 knots surfing down a wave. Our hull speed is 8 knots!
The night time experience, therefore, was all the more frustrating. South of Gran Canaria we sailed into a very difficult area of light flukey wind. Our windex was spinning round and round at the top of the mast, we were gybing and tacking all over the place in the dark with one of the crew shining a torch on the sails so that we could see which way they were flapping and, at one point, we were close reaching into a 12 knot south westerly - utterly bizarre!
Dinner on the first evening was pizza: easy to cook, and easy on the tummy in the evening conditions. This was prepared first by Peter and then finished by Mike. Several of the crew were queasy in these early conditions, and BTW Catriona sends her thanks to all those who contributed towards her ginger treats :0)
Today has been easier and relatively uneventful. We’ve experienced a mixture of wind strengths and directions, from 10 to 20 knots and mostly from the NNE but backing and veering. So, we’ve been reaching and gybing on two sails for much of the time with some poling out. It has been warm, sunny and very pleasant with the crew catching up on sleep lost during the tricky night time hours. Our passage plan to St Lucia is quite simple from here. We are simply trying our best to steer 260 degrees - straight there!
Dinner tonight is home made fish pie, prepared by Peter and served by Cariona and Mike.