Now, now, I’m not using this term lightly. Hear me out. Everything conspires to keep me out at sea. Let’s see all the reasons.
There’s the obvious one: the damaged boom. Because of this I do not dare carry as much mainsail as the conditions permit. Then, when I started planning my route through the High, I allowed the software to assume motoring in light wind patches. I didn’t do a good due diligence on the proposed routing, and verified how much motoring it would require. I only looked at the first light wind patch, but there’s more coming. Then I forgot to remove the motoring option when it became clear that I wouldn’t have enough fuel. There’s this Tug-O-War between the High and a Low pushing from the West. On forecast it looks like it would make for great sailing. Not so, not anywhere close! What is really going on is that the wind is constantly shifting and gusting. Since the Low first started influencing the wind, about mid afternoon yesterday, the wind shifts as much 50 degrees, and gusts to 200% of the lulls. With a compass driven autopilot these conditions make for very inefficient sailing. I must reef for the gusts, so we’re down to staysail (changed during the night) and the third reef. It has been really frustrating to be doing 4 kts in 15 kts of wind, just because there’s only so much time I can stay awake. In addition, the sea state is not helping. There’s a frontal swell that we’re dealing with, and when it hits, about every 2 minutes or so, presenting us with 5-10 speed bumps, we loose 1-2 knots. Being undercanvassed it then takes a while to recover. The wind waves are short and steep too. Think “going under the Golden Gate Bridge with an ebb” short and steep. Ultimately, because we’re slow and present good windage, the keel can’t do too much to prevent leeway. So there’s that too. See, it all comes together. I’m not so sure that 11/04 is going to be our date. .
