I'm on night watch now, I just relieved Paddy; he did the 1-3am shift. We're tearing along at 7-8 knots on a course of 285 running wing-on-wing with the main & gennaker. This speed on a dark night (1/3 crescent moon) can feel very fast. The wind is coming from 100 degrees (a tiny bit south of due east) so we are running pretty much dead downwind (DDW). With this sail configuration (wing-on-wing) , we have a vary narrow band that we have to sail within. If we veer too far to starboard, our mainsail that is on the port side will try to gybe to starboard. If we veer too far to starboard the gennaker "deflates" because the main spoils its wind.
Maintaining being "just right" requires constant vigilance or an autopilot; we're very thankful for our autopilot! We just need to be aware of windshifts to adjust the autopilot accordingly. As I write this I've had to adjust course to 290. Since Barbados is at 273 degrees from us and we prefer to be more south than north I'll be tacking soon which will involve moving the main to the starboard side and adjusting course to about 260. We can't point directly at 273 unless we take the gennaker down which would make us quite a bit slower. We'd rather go fast and in the approximate direction rather than slow and direct.
Autopilot was a godsend on night watches, it's so tricky to be accurate within a few degrees when you're exhausted and there is nothing but pitch black all around you!
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