Yesterday was relatively quiet, I got the weather forecast in the morning and as I could see that it was going to get windy overnight didn’t even think about trying to add more sail and it was, in any case, still quite rough so working on deck would be challenging. Well that’s not quite true because I was thinking about how to add more sail, but not about actually adding it.
I read quite a bit and have now finished the 4 book series by Larry McMurtry about Texas of yore, quite long books but very good. Thanks Jennifer.
I sewed a loop of sail tie onto the slider for the boom, I think that I’ll need this when I try to add the storm jib to the rig.
I had a splendid meal last night. I’ll run through the cabbage recipe in a minute but I’d made a casserole from some polish smoked sausages a couple of days ago. I didn’t eat it the day before yesterday because, having worked all day on the rig, I wanted something quickly and had bacon and eggs on toast, thinking I’d have the casserole later but didn’t. Anyway I felt like some potatoes with the casserole and having had them just boiled up in a casserole a few times in the past thought I’d do something different so parboiled them in smallish pieces and then fried them. Great, a bit of crunch! I’ve a fair bit of cabbage because it keeps so well and have taken to a lazy way of cooking it, I chop it up small, put a small squirt of seawater in the pan with a big dollop of butter and put it on the stove with the lid on ‘til it boils then remove the lid and let the water boil off and it then fries for a minute in the remaining butter. It comes out fine and is very trouble free. The casserole was surprisingly good I’d expected it to be a but bland but not a bit of it, a good smoky flavour through it. I can’t remember the name of the polish sausage but may be buying more when I’m home again.
Before dusk I did a round on deck, tightening up a couple of the stays on the mast and decided to leave the sail up overnight as we seemed quite comfortable.
From midnight through til about 0500 the sea obviously picked up a fair bit and we were knocked around more than was strictly comfortable, we weren’t knocked right down as such but several times must have had waves break around us and throw us into uncomfortable Attitudes. By 0500 the sail kept flapping, it can’t fill with the wind dead astern and it seemed to be backing more than it had been so I brought her a little more upwind so the wind was more on our quarter. She’s still like that now but of course it means that the sea is now less on the stern so is more likely to hit us awkwardly, I suspect that for poor weather in the future, particularly if it’s the right direction, I’m better off getting rid of the sail overnight. The forecast says the weather is supposed to fall away today.
I sleep in the port quarter berth, that is on the port side aft, and with the seas coming from the port quarter hear the various sounds that the sea can make, theres a kind of trickling / flowing sound which is similar to a river flowing fast over shallow water, I’m not sure what this is, it comes occasionally and doesn’t seem to warn of anything alarming. It’s probably a wave breaking in the vicinity but not actually right on us. Then there’s the crash of a breaking wave which is hitting us, or is about to, which is much more sinister and normally is the prelude to a bit of a bang and some violent motion. When nothing much is happening or about to then theres a kind of chuckle as the water rushes past coming and going with the waves and this is quite a comforting noise, speaking as it does of good progress.
Anyway I believe it’s the Scottish Series starting today, I hope it goes well, and all the best to everyone taking part, there’s also a muster along the Clyde in support of the Lifeboats on Monday, I believe, and all the best and well done to anyone participating in that.