A stronger bit of breeze, 6 July 2020 at 01.38 hours

Last afternoon we went from zero to strong wind in less then 20 minutes. Our wind prediction luckily was spot on, so as we set the mainsail and mizzen early in the afternoon, when everybody was on deck, we set both sails with a reef in it. The first hour or so we were plotting along with 5 or 6 knots when the wind decreased a little more and we were stuck rolling around. Shortly the idea may have popped into some of our minds that we should not have reefed those sails.. But as we saw our speed go down to 3,5 knots and the ship was rolling with hardly any pressure, some small wave heads started to show up and all off a sudden we were off!

With easing out the sheets we relieved some of the pressure in the waves and soon we were up to 8 knots. The wind was predicted to be North to North North East 22 to 25 knots and with a preferred course of 285 over the ground, we were happy getting some miles to our goal. But the wind kept increasing and with the short waves of a short fetch, it became somewhat uncomfortable! We were up to 9,5 knots though! I measured 30 to 34 knots of apparent wind and no sign of the wind or waves decreasing even a little, we took down the mainsail. With our all girls watch we had it down in just a few minutes, then struggled to pack it away for over 20mins! But who needs muscles if you have brains! And this these girls sure do have. With a long rope, some patience and some stubbornness we got the mainsail packed away nice and neatly, as if we were getting ready for a fleet review!

Now the wind is slowly doing exactly what our weather forecast has predicted, it is still strong and turning against us, so our course is slowly getting a little South in it, as well as West. We will have to tack later on, to make our way North as the wind may turn all the way West in the morning.

The atmosphere on board is still really good. Some adrenaline was a good break from our otherwise easy routine so far. The nights are getting colder though and some of our group have all their layers on at once, so hopefully it stays like this.

speed is now 5,5 knots heading 258 over the ground. Lets hope we can keep this up for a few more hours.

Jet

Comments are closed.