Year 7 Day 283 Passage to Richards Bay, Day SIx: The Right Combination
11 October 2014 | 58 nm NE Of Linga Linga
Dave/Partly Cloudy
Last night was a bit exciting. The winds were predicted to between 15 and 18 knots. However, at 2145 Mary Margaret called me up to the helm to help put in a couple of more reefs. We already had one reef in the main and another one in the head sail. However, for the last hour of Mary Margaret's watch, she had been experiencing winds in the 30 to 35 knots range. The way we had the sails configured, we were good for winds up to 35 knots.
Putting in reefs in the head sail is very simple with the nice rolling furler. Unfortunately, putting reefs in the main sail is a royal pain, especially in the dead of night with winds a blowin' and the waves bashing the bows and throwing spray and spume in one's face. Poor Mary Margaret got a face full a few times and was not a happy camper. I could not blame her. When we reef, her job is to manage the main halyard while I pull in the reefing lines. She has to stay way out on the flying bridge deck, fully exposed to all that the wind and wave gods can throw at her. I sit next to her but I am protected by the bimini and its foul weather panels. Thus, I stay relatively dry while poor Mary Margaret takes a beating.
We finally got the three reefs in both the main sail and the head sail. We were now set for anything the wind and wave gods could throw at us.
For the next 4 hours during my shift the winds stayed in the 20 to 25 knot range but soon after Mary Margaret started her 0200 shift the winds calmed down to 10 knots. We had finally slowed down to 3.5 knots with all of the reefs in the sails. What a night!
During the day the winds were in the 10 to 15 knot range. I played with different reef combinations to find which one would keep us at around 5.3 knots. This is the average speed we need to maintain in order to arrive at the mouth of the river we will be anchoring in just before peak high tide. We need the high tide to clear the sand bars and avoid the breakers that wash the river mouth at lower tides.
As soon as I came up with one reef combination for the main and head sails the winds would vary and we would be going either 3.5 knots or up to 6.5 knots. Right now we have two reefs in the main and none in the head sail. This is working well for now but I am sure it will change in the near future.
We are back in the Mozambique Current now. When we entered around 1300, we could instantly tell as our speed picked up about 1.5 knots. We are cutting across the current, heading for the mainland so we do not get the full benefit of the current, which is a good thing as we trying to keep Leu Cat from going too fast.
As of 1800 our position is 23 03.459; S: 026 20.976'E. Our speed is 5.3 knots with winds just 12 knots from the east. Our course is 231 degrees True, the seas are 1 to 2 meters from the SE. We have gone 948 nm during this passage and our average speed is 6.1 knots. We have less than 60 nm to go to our anchorage at Linga Linga.