A (Too) Smooth Night
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Wed 4 Feb 2026 02:42
Course: SE Speed: 4 knots
Wind: S, F1 light air
Sea state: 1 - rippled Swell: S 1 meters
Weather: mostly sunny, mild
Day's Run: 55 nm
The light variable conditions arrived as forecast. By 1600 we had jib furled and the code zero set, and by 1730 the code zero was down and the iron trysail was up (for the uninitiated the 'iron trysail' is an old sailor's joke referring to the boat's engine). We shifted between sailing with the code zero and motoring a couple of times, as a light breeze would fill in and then die out, but by midnight the sea was mirror smooth without a puff of air. Rather than continuing to motor, I handed the code zero and allowed Sylph to drift. I tried sailing one more time during the night, at 0100 when another slight breeze came in, but a quarter hour later it was gone. I then allowed Sylph to drift until 0930 this morning, giving myself the opportunity to get some semi-decent sleep, just getting up once an hour to ensure Sylph was okay, no contacts were sneaking up on us, and that no wind had sprung up. Unusual for this part of the world, the swell was very long and low and Sylph did not roll at all through the night, so I could keep the mainsail up without it slatting and I slept very well.
This forenoon, the breeze has again been teasing me, filling in for a bit and then dying out. Currently we are motoring. The wind is forecast to pick up to a steady force three to four from the SW later this afternoon which should make for a comfortable close reach along the coast. Late tomorrow the wind is again expected to fall light, but we will worry about that then.
In the meantime, I have fixed the solar panels - a bad connection near the panels, no doubt due to some water ingress into the connector; I have started repairing the code zero's sail bag though this is proving more difficult than I had hoped; and I think I have fixed the problem with the satphone connection - we will soon find out because we are out of mobile phone range again so this blog update needs to be sent by satphone.
All is well.