I start the day at 0200 when I get up for my Watch, as is now feeling pretty normal. I slept well. For the first hour Bonny continues sailing gently northwards at around 2 knots over an almost flat sea. I notice that we have started heading further east than we want and to correct that I have to pole out the genoa to port. At the previous sail adjustment the genoa sheet had been dropped out of the pole when the sail was set to leeward That means I have to drop the pole run the sheet through its end and hoist it again before partially furling the genoa and then pulling it out on the pole. Prior to that adjust the angle of the wind vane to head us further towards the west. By the time I have finished and got the boat sailing properly the wind has veered and I have to set the genoa back to leeward. The wind then gradually increases and within half an our or so our speed is up to a more respectable 5 knots. Our weather files indicate we should keep a good wind all day and that it will increase further in the evening.
The rest of my Watch passes without any notable events. Dawn breaks around 0400 and by 0530 the orange orb of the sun hangs over the overcast horizon.
George drags himself out of bed just before 0600, we have a quick chat before I gratefully climb back into bed for another couple of hours of sleep.
When I get up at 0830, George goes back to bed. He decides having another sleep before breakfast will be better for him
The sun is out and it's warming up but overall the temperatures have definitely dropped since we left St John's. I listen to music in the cockpit and write the blog. I find writing it on my phone is quite straightforward. I can type with one finger as quickly as I can think!
George gets up in a couple of hours and cooks a wonderful brunch of pancakes and lashings of Maple syrup (too much I'll cut down next time.
Poor chap has a minor disaster in the galley - the full coffee pot capsizes and he has to make another. We scoff down two pancakes each and then decide more are required. While George makes them I prepare fruit and we have the second round with fruit and yogurt in addition to more Maple syrup!
By the time we have finished brunch it's past midday and we have missed the opportunity to practice our noon sight with the sextant. Bernie will not be impressed!
The wind increases gradually during the afternoon and we suspect a reef will be needed before night fall. We undertake a more detailed assessment of the weather files to try and work out what our best course should be now given the winds predicted over the next few days and we conclude we should continue to avoid going east to any significant degree. Then I run CPN's weather routing plugin on the GFS weather model using the boat polar (sailing performance parameters) I configured in 2023 and the result is more or less in line with our own assessment except it shows we should head even further west over the next 24 hours. We decide to follow it as best we can.
It's cold (10°C) and has got quite lively; for the first time it feels like we are sailing in the high latitudes. We are now at about 54° North. At 2100 we put a reef in the mainsail and then I go to bed. George wonders whether we may need two. I think one will be enough.
At midnight we have covered another 119 miles in a straight line and our distance to destination is 515 which means we have reduced that distance by 91 miles over the last 24 hrs
No comments:
Post a Comment