Friday, March 29, 2013

Day Eleven - 7N 124W - The Land of Tradewinds, Flying Fish, and Squalls.

The wind has finally become more consistent from the Northeast.

When the boat is moving fast, such as during the day, with the big spinnaker pulling it, the wave action is not too bad and the tripled-up rogue waves don't slam us, much.

However, it is not really safe to leave the spinnaker up at night because it is not a fast and easy thing to raise or lower in the dark if conditions change. So we put out the jib with a preventer line which keeps if from backwinding up against the mast and spreaders if the wind should shift. The jib is smaller and we don't go as fast. No big deal in calm seas, but the waves have been building for the past few days and the rogue wave slamming is fierce at times. The boat is handling it better than the crew. Last night we only got a few naps between us.





Since you can't change external events, our only control exists over things on or in the boat. So today we have shifted all the gear out of the aft cabin and we are moving in there for the rest of out time underway.

The slamming will continue, it just won't be coming from below us. (The engine room is beneath the aft cabin)

Cheers, Dave and Booker



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