Well some change, nothing broke and we didn’t do anything stupid today, so that is something!
However the conditions haven’t changed much. The wind is still from the Monstrous Pain in the Tuchas Zone, as I type this it has finally seemed to drop consistently below 22 knots. It is still from the Southwest though with no sign of direction change yet at least we’re not seeing the 30’s we saw this morning.
We’ve a bit of current pushing us North as well, so our options are 1) sail basically due South straight into it or 2) sail more West, faster and get pushed a little North. We’re going with West.
Either way there are steep irregular seas for some reason. Evenstar is heavy and can push through them but it slows us down. Eight foot speed bumps hitting you from different directions, if you will. With this wind we can make 7.5 knots or more in flat water but the waves can slam us back into the 5’s and 6’s repeatedly. Hopefully the drop in wind will soon correspond to a settling of the seas a well.
We did take a break for a while, we ?parked? the boat for a few hours using a technique called ?heaving to?. I won’t describe in detail how to do it, but it slows the boat to a knot or two and gets you a better motion with the waves. Pounding into waves and breeze all night on Starboard tack meant no one rested too well and the break let some us get some solid naps in and get a little regrouped.
That’s all for now. This trip is grinding along ? we WILL get there eventually but a break in the wind sure would make it more pleasant!
