Force 8 with Frideric Handel (Video)

December, 2018

Day 61

Noon Position: 49 47S 48 33W

Course(t)/Speed(kts): ENE 7

Wind(t/tws): NWxW 20

Sea(t/ft): NW 3 and 8 (granddaddy swell under local small sea)

Sky: Cumulus and alto cumulus

10ths Cloud Cover: 9

Bar(mb): 1008+, steady

Cabin Temp(f): 59

Water Temp(f): 45

Relative Humidity(%): 70

Sail: Working genoa and main; one reef in main. A reach tending toward broad reach.

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 152

Miles since departure: 8262

Avg. Miles/Day: 135

Steady winds continue from the NW, and on them we make steady progress. But that is about to change. Tonight wind will back a solid one hundred and eighty degrees and settle into the south for a day or two. I anticipate little good sleep tonight.

Cold drizzle in the afternoon; a gray and pasty sky. Not much worth talking about…

So, for today, a video, a collage of scenes from the wild and beautiful force 8 blow some time back.

The idea for the video’s organization came to me during the blow and the “whistling” scenes were shot in it, this by way of illustration that during tough weather, most of one’s time is spent watching and being ready. It also shows how amazingly quite the pilot house is with mayhem just a few feet away.

The last wave scene in the video is the one in which Mo surfed, hard. I’ve never experienced anything like this brief, pedal-to-the-metal run. All other surfing during that blow was mere indifferent acceleration in comparison. The whole cabin roared. The speed indicator read 15 knots well after the height of things. I just happened to have the camera rolling at the time.

This episode occurred very late in the blow when, as you can see by the breaking sea on camera just after the surf, wave break was starting to pitch bodily forward and with lots of thrust. Winds were not any more intense then they had been; likely they were beginning to ease, but it was day four of force 8, and seas were quite mature. From my perspective, this is a good example of how a blow can be most difficult to negotiate in its latter stages…

Enjoy.