The Music is Light and Variable
Day 4
Noon Position: 29.49.54W, 124.41.42W
Course: SW
Speed: 1 – 2 knots
Wind: Light and Variable
Sail: Big Jenny plus full main and “scandalized” with the stack pack for good measure
Bar: 1018
Sea: NW 1 – 2
Sky: Gray, still. Have not seen sun since slipping under the Golden Gate Bridge
Cabin Temp: 70
Water Temp: 67
Miles last 24-hours: 87
Miles since departure: 528
Ran all night with twins poled out, but in fact they caught little air. A devil’s orchestra, they whipped and banged in their frustration and so badly that I had, this morning, to cut away chafe on the port genoa sheet where the mad dog of a pole had chewed through the cover. Day four and I’m already dealing with chafe.
An hour before dawn, I woke to find Mo making E, a nice thought, but several thousand miles premature. What there was of wind had gone into the W, and so I doused the poles and have been flying the big genoa and main since. Wind went lightly S and then SE and then W again and we slowly boxed the compass in search of a heading everyone could agree on, a disorienting experience when the sky is flat gray.
I’ve been at the tiller and sheets most of the day as this is no kind of weather for Monte.
This afternoon wind went WNW, variable 6 – 12, for three glorious hours. Monte was beside himself. He’d be happily sawing away on his fiddle back on the taffrail when Neptune would throw in a chord change. Wind would suddenly increase by 6 knots. He’d charge off WSW.
“Monte! Dude, we go south,!” I’d shout.
“What? I thought you wanted to go fast. Here is fast!” he’d shout back.
“Yes, fast *and* south.”
“Ah, but you see, Capitan, the music she does not always play in both directions.”
The wind seems to be driven by squalls but not of the kind I’ve ever seen before. These “squalls” are large and thin; they bring a smattering of rain and can take several hours to approach and pass.
The last one passed about four this afternoon, and now we are back to the cacophony of no wind.
May simply drop sails for the night.
Question: isn’t this where one might expect NE trades?
Monte is a good shipmate to talk to. Very wise. Specializes in what’s possible.
Too soon for trades, man, and maybe too far East. I once made the run from Socal to Panama with lots of light air and no NE trades. Hang in there!
from Holy Grrail Howard
Have the same problem with chafe with the poles on the sheet lines. Now add a carbon fibre sleeve at the sheet end and have no chafe. Hope you have some extra length on the sheet line. Wind will come….patience be damned I want wind now!
WOW, enjoy a good sail. How can I track your cruise?