L'Eau Commotion Westabout

9:00pm Tuesday 5th September 2017 ( UTC+7 ) Not so stupid as it turned out. A pre dawn check around showed a gentle following breeze with an average speed since midnight of just over 5 knots. H'mm - good time to try the Big A, after a little sleep in, a coffee, some porridge, check the weather forecast, rig the boom out, a cup of coffee ...... . By this time the wind had got up to around 16 knots dead astern and although the large Southerly swell had all but disappeared the following sea was showing the odd whitecap with the tendency to kick the stern around, so it was decided that the single poled out jib was sufficient. The average speed from then on was over 6 knots and now with that coming closer to 8 knots as the occasional squall blots out the full moon and with surges of 10 knots as we cream down the waves the simple solid setup is most comforting. It is also welcomed that the extended tiller arm is handling these difficult conditions, not quite as well as a good helmsman or indeed the autopilot, but of course w ith no current drain or excessive wear.