Reduced Sail
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Wed 2 Jul 2014 01:40
Course: North Speed 5 knots
Wind: East nor' east F3 gentle breeze
Weather: overcast, cool
Day's run: 106 nm
The wind freshened a little towards sunset yesterday so, with the low pressure system approaching from the south, I thought it prudent to reduce sail for the night. Conditions did in fact pick up a little during the night, not as much as I had expected, but the odd gust had Sylph heeling over to her gunwales from time to time (it doesn't take much with Sylph's low freeboard), so the reduced sail allowed me to sleep a little more comfortably, and our speed during the night suffered only marginally.
This morning the wind has eased off back to a gentle force three, so, after breakfast - a cup of tea and an egg mixed with boiled rice, I let out the reef in the mainsail and unfurled the jib. We are now making a comfortable five knots to the north, the breeze having at last swung into the north east. My forecaster tells me that by tomorrow the wind will have backed further into the west, which will make it a following breeze. With luck it might stay in that quadrant for a few days and take us the rest of the way to Attu Island, the first of the Aleutian chain, now about 430 miles distant.
All is well.