Tecla in motion, chasing the winds

Thursday was an amazing day of sailing, sails filling, Tecla rolling and barreling down the waves. There was a certain ease to it, it felt. While showers passed over, winds would increase and we would divert her course a little more south, downwind, taking away the pressure. Then, returning to our preferred 205° course over the ground, once the showers had passed and the wind decreased to a force four again.

In the early hours of Friday morning, it seemed the last of the showers had left us. Under reefed mizzen, reefed main, forestaysail, and second jib, we were doing between 4 and 9 knots. But then two big black clouds appeared. Instead of strong winds in front of them, the wind completely dropped behind the shower… The sails tried to come over from portside to starboard and back again every time we rolled down a wave.

We altered course many times to try and find a steady angle. But nothing! Everything felt chaotic, and every whack of the sails hurt my ears and heart.

Engine on, just to gain some aim and direction over the ship, sheets still out in case a sudden shower would bring us wind again. Twenty minutes later, we found some wind again and turned off the engine. Off we shot at 8 knots!

We knew the winds were supposed to drop, so we were not surprised, just annoyed. We sailed for another three or four hours, but with increasing slamming of the sails and rising unease on deck. Around 09:00, we turned the engine on and started heading south again, as keeping the sails full had involved heading west some of the time.

We took down all sails before lunch—no more hope of the wind returning that day. Waves were too high, and the water was probably still way too cold for a swim stop, so we just continued on our course. We enjoyed the sunshine on deck, a relaxing afternoon, and easy steering… as can be seen in a picture by Martin, who also won picture of the day with an action shot of taking down the jib and forestaysail.

Right now, the night is dark. Small clouds have formed in the sky, but the stars are still very visible; we even saw more shooting stars! The hum of the engine is becoming a monotone sound. We have some music on while steering—my last one was Nick Cave, Into My Arms. I can hear Rena’s songs, and she has Sultans of Swing on. I will soon disturb her tranquility and swing with some maintenance jobs, but I will wait until the end of the song before doing so.

For now, we are staying west of our course line. The wind is supposed to return in the morning (it has already changed direction in the last hour to a westerly airflow) and come back as a moderate breeze from the west, making our heading south-southwest easy to maintain.