Woke up early today about 01:30, The morning shift was a bit of a pain, we now have the wind coming from behind/to the side of us, this means our semi protected cockpit does nothing now…. 15-19 knot winds blow straight on to whoever is sitting up there. I’m starting to get a bit chilly up there, might even break out the jumper and jeans at some point.
Winds were swinging around from 90-120 which mean that if it goes above 110 the sails stop acting like wings and start acting like parachutes. To get the best out of the winds and for the safety of the boat, when the winds are coming more from behind you have to change the sail setup, which takes time, but as I said, this morning the winds were swinging all over the place. So this morning I must have change the setup 10+ times, but as I finish changing the setup the winds had gone back and i would have to change to the other setting. In the end I settled for a balance of the 2 settings, it didn’t seem to effect our speed much.
After my morning nap, I’m not feeling that great, feels like the start of a cold, sore throat and little sniffily.
Bit of a nothing day….
Caught 4 fish, 1 was let go, 3 got away (2 of which got away while letting the 1st fish go)
Mum’s been complaining about the roughish ride we’ve been having and said that it always gets rougher when I take the helm. I’m just doing what I’ve been told to do, stay on course and trim the sails. It’s not my fault that during my watch the winds pick up, so do the seas/waves and that I manage to get 8-9 knots of speed out of 15-18 knots of wind.
We are covering a great number of miles now per day, but we are all starting to feel the rough bashing we’ve had over the past few days, you definitely have to hold on to something at all times if you are in a upright position now.
Trying to draw or do photos is a big no no in these conditions. 5+ mins of looking at something other than the sea or horizon will make you feel pretty sick soon enough.
Leave a Reply