Wednesday, August 5, 2009

R oll and roll

Stuck again ! The rolling for the last 24 hours has been the worse we
have seen so far. Since yesterday, we have made many changes to the sail
settings with not much success. This morning, the wind veered to ENE and
we had to go running with the sails wing to wing and 2 reefs. This did
not held more than an hour after which the wind backed again to its old
ESE. So we put the sails back to same side on the port tack, but then
the wind increased and the Monitor complained. So, we took a third reef
again and then the wind dropped almost completely and we had to steer
for a few hours to creep forward at less than 3 knots. Then, around 4
p.m., it came back to its usual 15 to 18 knots and we are back to normal.
But the results for the day are not very good. We progressed 137 miles
over the ground but closed in by only 129, which puts us at 1908 miles
to go for Fatu Hiva.
We are back to normal, but for how long . . . .
The temperature continues to rise. The air is at 83 and the sea at 79.3
and the cloud cover is still with us. Actually, I think that it is a
plot and that someone has arranged for us to keep our own private cloud
cover that travels with us.
Maybe tomorrow. . . .

1 comment:

Gary Underwood said...

checking in on your progress and will keep an eye on you!

The Undertaker