Woke up this morning around 5:30. The wind had fallen in the night and the boat was moving slowly. That's good motivation for me to get out of bed. Paddy was on watch so we discussed what to do. We had been running wing-on-wing throughout the night which gives the helmsman very little latitude on which direction to steer and still keep wind in the sails. So we first tried to tack to the south but didn't get much speed difference and I was concerned on how far south we were headed. Then we tried dropping the main and sailing just with the gennaker. Still painfully slow but at least we could sail on the rhumb.
Then we pulled weather which said to head south-southwest. We re-hoisted the main and tacked down again. This time finding just the right balance and we were off sailing at 7 knots. I think we both had a bit of an uplift in this accomplishment as the sun crested the horizon. It's a beautiful morning. I spent a little while doing some maintenance on some ropes that needed a "haircut" as can be seen in the pictures. This is called whipping.
In looking at your Cornell tracker it seems like the two lead boats are motoring as their lines are too straight. It looks like there are only a couple/few of you who are truly sailing the whole way. But, that's just me - the landlocked non-sailor's opinion. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove the photos! ~ c.