Days 2-3, 9-10/6/24

This is a bit rushed due to little sun today snd therefore have to limit Starlink usage, so apologies for inevitable typos...

The grib I downloaded yesterday (9/6) and Windy were in broad alignment and indicated we would encounter light winds tomorrow (11/6) to be followed by a depression forming to the west and tracking east. It showed as being narrow around a roughly north/south axis, and must be part of the reason the weather route showed such an extreme diversion to the east. The important thing is that we try and leave the centre to our west so that we benefit from southerly winds rather than the northerlies that will stream down its western flank. We therefore headed roughly NNE yesterday afternoon under goosewinged genoa and mainsail. 

Later a passing ship provided the opportunity to practise using the radar, an instrument I've hardly ever used but which hopefully will prove useful in the notoriously foggy waters off Nova Scotia.

The earlier forecast showed the wind picking up over night up to around 20 knots in the early hours of this morning (10/6). After our omelette dinner and just before nightfall, I therefore put a reef in the mainsail. The wind did indeed pick up and it wasn't long before we were scudding along at 5-6 knots. It continued to increase overnight increasing our speed to 6-7 knots. Eventually, around 0100 a series of banging noises caused by the genoa sheets flogging, emphasised the need to reduce sail further. The sheets were flogging because the genoa was collapsing and filling, which in turn was caused by the wind pressure on the mainsail forcing the bow towards the wind until the Hydrovane got the boat back on track. I already knew we were over canvassed and spent most of the first part of the night awake worrying about it, but hoping the wind would die a little. It didn't of course.

Time to reef again! First I had to shake Vince awake - he can sleep through anything - and get him strapped into the cockpit. Then I went up to the mast and strapped myself to it, and went through Tom Cuncliffe's down wind reefing routine. My goodness I'm so glad I stumbled across it. It's a game changing process. Previously I would have had to roll up the genoa, head up into the wind in a lumpy sea. Reef. Turn back down wind and then reset the genoa. A time consuming and very wet and uncomfortable process. Instead, I simply took the slack out of the topping lift to lock the boom in place against the opposing tension from the sheet and preventer, slacken the lazy lines, slacken the main halyard, haul in the reefing pennants, then the throat of the sail, and complete the reefing process as normal but from the 'comfort' of a dry foredeck. Twenty minutes later rather than an hour and a half,  I was back in the cockpit to take in a few rolls on the genoa for good measure. Then back to bed!

If anything the wind increased further over night and so it was definitely the right decision. I dozed in fits and starts throughout the rest of the night and early daylight hours until a strange engine-like noise got me up to investigate. I thought it might be an aeroplane but it was just the water pump - Vince was having a shower!

Breakfast was toast and coffee including losing a dose of freshly frothed lactose free milk for Vince down the sink. I got grumpy again!

Another ship passed giving a further  opportunity to play with the radar. I'm quite impressed with it. That made me miss recording the 1200 position by 30 minutes!  However, we had covered 129 nautical miles over the last 24.5 hours, which isn't bad given that we only started hitting 5 knots about 9 hours into the 24.

I'm hoping the next grib will not suggest the need for a big diversion like the last one did, but you won't find out until tomorrow in the next post - assuming that Starlink continues to cooperate.