Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
posted to rec.boats.cruising
|
|||
|
|||
Miami Passage - Day 02
[This message forwarded from their sailmail status report.]
Miami Passage - Day 2, October 3 Hello from the Atlantic Ocean, 37*14'N, 74*42'W. As we left you, we were beating our way Southwest at the lower end of Delaware, about 40 miles offshore. Earlier in the day, we'd rocked and rolled to the extent that we'd put alternate toe rails in the water, an impressive feat on a Morgan 46, even aided with the big waves. With all that rocking and rolling, and good wind and solar power input, I turned on the fuel polisher, even though I'm relatively certain we more than cleaned out the tank during our wreck pounding, and the trip to St. Petersburg for rehab, which had similar rock-and-roll characteristics. Early evening results are in; the waves are subsiding - only about -5 to 25 degree rolls, with the predominant attitude well within the performance zone of 10-15 degrees of heel. The Sailmail connectivity continues to improve, with yesterday's log going out at double the already-vastly-improved rate of my test mails the day before. Yesterday's progress, despite all the doldrums and time getting out of the harbor, our slowdown in the afternoon, and meandering, was about 140 miles over ground using rhumb lines only (further if you looked at our actual, wandering, track). So, despite a depressing and uncomfortable day, we're on track for another great passage, this time nearly 1000 miles. By 9 PM, the winds had dropped to the 10-15 knot range, but were also beginning to shift south slightly. Thus, we continued to beat our way southwest in order to be able to shift more southerly when the wind clocked around. We still rock around fairly much, but if the wind drops just a little more, we can put out the genoa again, which will stabilize us more than what we now have up, and should make for better speed as well. By 10, the wind indeed did continue to drop and we put up the genoa. With a typical 10-12 knots, we'd have the main up fully, but just like the time to reef is when you first think of it, a reef in the main at night helps guard against unseen (dark, ya know) gusts or other wind anomalies which might make for wishing you had the reef in! Those following our SPOT track will see the slight curve to the south as the wind shifted, preceded by our slight curve to the west as we pinched after we ran off during the worst of it yesterday. Lydia relieved me at 11, and the calmer sea state promised blissful sleeping - just enough rock and roll to be comfy, not throw you out of the bunk! Sure enough, I knew nothing until I smelled the toast she was cooking at 5:30. As I'd wanted to get up at 6, that worked very well. As forecast, the wind shifted, actually quite dramatically, rather than a gradual trend, as those following our SPOT track will see, forcing us on a slightly SE track. As quickly as it was daylight, I shook out the reef in the main, and we proceeded under full canvas, all the sheets on the laundry line, so to speak. Still, it was light enough that we crept along at under 4 knots. However, now that all was back to normal in the rigging sense, I hardened up all the sails to drum-tight, and pointed for all we were worth. With the rigging full and trimmed, our speed increased to over 6 knots, which also contributed to the apparent wind, so now we're beating along in nearly 15 knots of wind, and our direction has improved by about 10 degrees, though we're still only due south. All this pinching has resulted in a higher degree of heel, too, so I've had to raise the nav desk to flat to prevent my keyboard and mouse from escaping to the sole (floor). Fortunately, they're pretty hardy, and the several times they've crashed off the nav desk in the past has resulted in no more excitement than, once, a battery cover popping off. Anyway, the heel is right at our performance limit, and we're still efficient - but Lydia may have to use her feet to keep from sliding down the bed, more on which, below :{)) By daylight, the sea state had lowered to nearly calm, less than 1' waves in the gentle (albeit contrary to our travel, and, again, not in the NOAA forecast by nearly 100 degrees), so we put out our remaining poles to see if we could catch our dinner. We're close enough in that we might have a little more luck than the most recent few times we've had the lines out, but we're out of the prime fishing spot, the Gulf Stream. We still have room to avoid it, but likely, unless the wind shifts again, we'll have to tack back in to shore. The morning weather report started out looking like it would be a bust, as all of the 6:30, 7 and 8AM broadcasts were nothing but static. The 8:30 one started out very poorly, as I could just barely hear, but not make out the transmission. However, by close to 9, as he worked through other clients, I could make out that he was about to stand by, so I piped in. Imagine my pleasure when his reply was loud and clear. The rest of our conversation was very tolerable when it wasn't clear as a bell. We'll be facing the southwest winds which *may* clock a bit to the west for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, they'll also die even more as they clock around to the north for tomorrow (Saturday). If we're successful in making Hatteras before Sunday morning, wind and waves should be very good. However, by Sunday PM the wind will pick up substantially from the NE, which would make for very unsettled water, along with short-sail conditions in the wind. Short sail is OK but 8-10; unsettled seas aren't much fun, so we'll do everything we can to make it around Hatteras before then, even if it requires turning on the engine, which tears up our budget! If we can manage it without a tack, to avoid the Gulf Stream, we actually look very good to make it around Hatteras sometime tomorrow, as, at 10AM as I write, it's 140 miles from here on a rhumb line. However, if the wind doesn't clock soon, we'll have to tack to get west, as we'll hit the Gulf Stream about 36N/75W. That's about 85 miles south of here, and at our current rate of travel, the wind likely will have clocked, so we may get away with it. Tomorrow's forecasted very light winds may have us doing a spinnaker run down to Hatteras. When the conditions are right, that's an extremely useful sail, and we like it flying whenever we can. We'll see. It requires light airs in just the right direction. Contrasting that was yesterday, which, as I mused on our travels, was actually more wind and sea state than we faced in Hanna, except that we'd stripped all the loose stuff from the deck, lashed our sails, and rode it out below. Recall that Hanna presented maximum winds of 30 and the highest gust of 34, knots, with no more than 3-4' seas, for only a couple of hours. Yesterday, instead, we had sustained winds of 30 with gusts to 35, seas of, at some points, 6-8 feet, and it lasted for about 12 hours! Well, as the day wore on, the wind and waves picked up a bit, too, still from SW. So, I continued to beat, in 15-20 knot winds. Unfortunately, that resulted in a heel of about 15-20 degrees, right at our performance limit. At that, we were going along very well in 5.5-6.6 knots, varying, as I kept it tight to the wind, between a course of 185 and 210, with very little slippage as might have otherwise been the case at a greater heel. The latter (210) would put us at our turning point in Hatteras, but combined with yesterday's seasickness, and a couple of drawers falling out for lack of hook-and-eye setup as they used to have, removed during our refit, but never replaced, caused Lydia to melt down, and we bore off to reduce the pressure. Later we reduced sail, rolling up the genoa a bit, causing Flying Pig to stand up further, but losing the associated speed from less sail area. Given that our course now was on the order of 155 degrees, it's just as well we didn't go any faster! By 3PM it was necessary to tack to avoid running afoul of the Gulf Stream, and we headed back north at about 330 degrees. A few hours of that would put us back in a position to resume our rhumb line run to Hatteras. We tacked back, just before dark. However, that tack, of about 25 miles, reduced our distance made good by about 15 miles over where we'd have been to have continued, and cost us about 4 hours. Thus, today was notably shorter, only about 85 miles (110 if you count the tack...). So, we leave you, beating SSW in dying winds from SW, soon to be from the North, about 60 miles ENE from Virginia Beach. Stay tuned! L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Miami Passage - Day 01 | Cruising | |||
Maine Passage - Day 4 | Cruising | |||
Maine Passage - Day 6 | Cruising | |||
Maine Passage - Day 3 | Cruising | |||
NW Passage | ASA |