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Date:Thu, 24 Aug 2023 18:42:13 GMT
Day 4 of the Journey North
Good practices and night sailing.
Hi Guys. Wednesday day and night:
We made 4.1 knots through the night.
We were reefed with 15 knots of wind and by 4am
we were just passing Jupiter inlet. It felt like
the popup storms were chasing us. They came
one after another from the east moving toward
shore. The winds would shift and drop on the sides
of the storms and then pick up on the back side.
Sam and I took shifts through the night and talked
about the stars. I napped in his bunk in the aft
cabin. It's the best bed on the boat. We had chili
for dinner and home made cookies.
By morning we were around Ft. Pierce and we sailed
through out the day close hauled. Seas were
3-4 feet with an 8 second period and winds were 10-15
out of the north east. We had Yogurt and Granola for
breakfast and Turkey and cheese rollups for dinner.
We are running the Generator for about 2 hours a day
to keep up with power requirements and we have found that
our water in the tanks now all jostled up and bounced around
is sour smelling. So we are filtering the water before
using it.
In the afternoon our turning block on the port side
had the pin coming out and we almost lost the bronze
sheeve! Sam and I spent about an hour fixing it
We were mostly looking for small set screws that would
fit. The set screws had been removed and not replaced
and the pin/blot had backed out.
By about 1930 approaching Cape Canaveral the winds suddenly
changed to directly off the nose. We tried to tack several
times but our velocity made good was only two knots so we opted
to try and catch a coastal breeze by tacking in toward the land.
we were about 15 miles off shore. In the end with storms coming
we opted to start the engine. Hannah and I took in the sails
and put in both reefs in the main so that when we raised it
during the night it would already be reefed. We motored till about 2am
and as we were ready to round the cape the winds shifted favorable again.
So we put up Jib and mizzen with the Jib reefed about 50% and we
were making 6 knots with 15 knots of wind. popup storms came
back to back and we got hit by 3 of them.
I like to reef at night as a general rule. But if you can
make 6 knots reefed why put up more canvas? Just to stress
the boat for no good reason? Winds were 10G18 out of the east
which is where the popups came from. one time I had to
put on the auto pilot and come below to get out of the
driving rain and 20 knot winds but it was only for about 20 minutes.
Reef early and Reef often. Don't over power your rig!
Oh, and at about 4am I found out the motor is blowing
exhaust in the bilges so I'll have to look at it after sun up.
I'm going to eat breakfast and go to sleep after Sam wakes up