top of page
Search
Writer's pictureJock Hamilton

Heading West

Another frustrating night! The wind kept shifting and going up and down, whilst there is a bit of a sea still so in light winds the sails bang around horribly. We altered course a few times in the night to try to maintain progress and are now, still in light winds but with the assymetric spinnaker up again and making about 4 knots, the main is also up.


We lowered the genoa this morning to check for chafe on the halyard, it seems to wear on the diverter which is fitted just below the top of the mast to stop the halyard wrapping around the forestay when furling it. There was a little chafe on the anti chafe sleeve that we’ve fitted so we moved the rubbing point and re hoisted it, so it should be fine for another week at least.


We are now mostly heading West, and are really  (particularly Alastair) that the winds pick up and become steady soon and we can start to make more rapid progress.


There was a catamaran ahead of us last night but I think that she was probably motoring because of her speed so we’ll probably not see her again. We’ve still not seen Woody since a few days ago. The sun is in and out today as it’s cloudy. Stephen has taken another sight and is doing his calculations on it at the moment, hopefully he’ll get a meridional passage again today and be able to get a position for apparent noon. He got one yesterday and wants to do several to make the whole process more familiar.


We had a little storm petrel hitching a lift last night sitting just ahead of the spray hood which was good to see.



I’m reading a book, possibly it’s also still on radio 4 at the moment, about ‘Wager’ a Naval ship wrecked on an island off the coast of Chile in the 1700s,  it sounds awful, they had TB to start killing them off before leaving UK this continued and then scurvy set in before an awful month of trying to round the horn and were then shipwrecked by not having a good longitude and thinking that they were further into the pacific than they actually were. I’ll not go on as it’ll spoil the story but I believe the more interesting bits are still to come.


We had a rice muck do which was good last night and we’ll have a salad for lunch a lettuce is looking past it’s best and I’m not happy to throw it away yet, it’s only the outer bit that’s affected. I think it’ll be a sort of nicoisy type with tinned anchovies and a dressing I’m keen to try of Katharine’s using soy, ginger and garlic. It’s possible I’ve misunderstood and this mixture is for flavouring more savoury type stuff but we’ll give it a go anyway, we have some ordinary dressing too.


It’s looking like our day’s run will only be about 110 today, which doesn’t seem a lot but is actually fine.


I was wondering whether a 200 mile day may be possible, like cycling, and if we have a 25 hour day, which we sometimes do when putting the clocks back that means averaging 8 knots. I suspect this is overly ambitious as do the others however it’s not a bad aspiration.

124 views1 comment

Recent Posts

See All

Nearly There!

A stress free day it turned out to be! The Border force confirmed that unless they contacted me otherwise, the form we’d filled in in the...

1 Comment


colinandanne1
Jan 16

At least you still have all your bits in the right place including those on the yacht! Chafe not good anywhere sensitive! Noted R4 & "Wagner" . I was bought a hard copy for one of my many crimble presents. Should you want a proper read I would be happy to loan it to you. It is a really well presented book and was on my wish list due to so many 10/10 recommendations. Good luck with the hunt for a 200mile day. Cheers Anne & Colin

Like
Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page