Welcome to the North Atlantic
May 22, 2019
Day 229
Noon Position: 36 36N 6116W
Course: ENE 6
Wind: NNW 20 -25
Sea: NNW 14
Sail: #2, three reefs, close reaching
Noon to Noon miles made good: 115
We’re biting into the underside of our first North Atlantic low. Winds are the stiffest we’ve experienced since Cape Horn, and are made to feel all the more so because I’m trying to reach to the NE in a strong northwesterly. I doused the main at noon, by which time the rail couldn’t keep its head above water. Mo is down to a triple reefed #2 and making six and seven knots.
What is surprising is the heft of the seas. This morning when the sun was still dominant, the water top looked like a potato patch shoal. But as the day has progressed, and wind built, the seas have stacked up in a way that would make the southern ocean proud. Fourteen feet is not a stretch.
I’ve been in foulies all day and for the first time in two months. Likely be in foulies for the duration.
It’s still, as they say in policing, an active crime scene, so I need to get back on deck.
Welcome to May in the North Atlantic – but you have a great boat, a steady head …. watching you likely lying to your sea anchor for 24 hours or more? … good luck with a weather window to get up across the Gulf Stream, hope the wind-against-current-waves ( we call them condominiums – as high as possible, and as close together as possible) are not too bad! and get those fleeces out again !!!
Randall, and MO, hang in there and be safe!!!
These photos make me look forward to the Farallones race. Your brilliant posts are an excellent escape for all of us land lubbers with financial stresses and the other rat race issues we all have, It looks like you are trying to draw a heart for Joanna with your recent path on the tracker? https://ibb.co/mHWXRPw
Love the tracker! https://ibb.co/mHWXRPw
Looks like you are attempting to draw a heart for Joanna?
Randall stay steady and safe. Almost there!
Hi Randall, I gues this is as close as we get. My noon was 39-12N / 063-44W, bound for N.Y. We are having this kind of weather for a week, but it is improving now. Hang in there and best of luck on Northwestern route.