We motored offshore yesterday morning to hunt for the wind which Freespirit where enjoying. By mid-afternoon we'd found a good F4-5 NE - fortunately just as we ran out of diesel in our main tank (we're now onto our reserves). Under cruising chute and full main we stormed along reaching peaks of 7.5knots and cruising around 6.5knots. The fishing was postponed as there was enough to handle with the sailing. Over night we put in a couple of reefs in the main to try to quieten things down, but were still comfortably making 5.5-6knots.
Ellen put in another heroic watch from 12.00 - 6.30am - apparently I was impossible to wake at 6.00am. Not much shipping to report last night, but plenty of shooting stars. I spent a good deal of my off-watch time stuffing lockers with tea-towels to try to stop their contents rolling around with the boat. The rolling averages about 10-15deg in either direction, but at times can be considerably more. It makes cooking a challenge - I managed to inadvertantly make treacle while cooking some pasta last night when I hadn't noticed the sugar fly out of a locker and lodge itself behind the pan on the cooker. Unfortunately the motion is testing the strength of Avomine for Ellen.
We're experimenting with our generator in water mode - in theory at 5knots it should be generating 6A and 8A at 6knots - which should be enough to combat even the worst excess of our fridge.
We're currently under full-main with the genoa poled out on the opposite side (goose-winging) making 5-5.5knots on a course of 210 deg T for Lazarote. We're considering making for the main island and the security of a marina as there's some nasty weather forecast for later in the week, although the weather faxes, show the UK receiving the full brunt of it.
Position @ 8.30GMT N31deg 17.7' W012deg 14.1'
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment