Trying New Sail Combinations
05 August 2016 | 80 Nm West South West of Raz de Sein
Ulric W2
Queen's Ransom with Asymmetric and Poled out Genoa
It is 05.30 and the first day light appears. I can notice that it gets earlier as we progress North and East. We are in the main shipping lane across the Bay of Biscay with three vessels on our stern: Emerald Princess, a Bermudian registered 290 metres cruiseship heading for Southampton at 21 knots, MSC Ishkya, a 230 metres Liberian registered containership heading for Felixstove at 19 knots and Mistral, a 130 metres Turkish registered cargoship heading for Horsens, Denmark at a lower pace of 13 knots.
Another glorious Summer’s day unfolded. As predicted, not much wind. We experimented with a new set up with asymmetric and poled out genoa to windward. It worked, but certainly no breathtaking speed with the few knots of wind that we had. A war ship was laying at the horizon for most of the day moving slowly just like us. Late afternoon, we fired up the engine to make progress towards Ile de Sein.
Hans served one of his master piece dinners in the evening. The sea was calm, it was warm and everything bathed in sunlight. We discussed favorite cruising destinations. Sardines with beer were followed by slow cooked beef in a curry of cauliflower, leek and bell peppers with potatoes and red wine from the Douro region in Portugal. The chocolate mousse with port wine, syrup and aquavit in it blow everything away including myself for the evening.
It is 02.10 am and we have entered the continental shelf. The water depth increases rapidly from 4000 to 150 metres of depth. I am thinking back to this sail with Queen’s Ransom, visiting the Balearic and Atlantic Islands, mainland Africa and now 13 months later be back in Brittany. More about this in my post script.
position:47 13.6'N:6 13.0'W