Kipper Sailing

Some of you might notice a correlation between the length of my blogs and the current conditions. When Kipper is heeling over 30 degrees and pounding to windward, it's awkward and very uncomfortable sitting at the keyboard. Well this is going to be one of the longer posts.

We're about 80 miles ESE of Dundee, ghosting along at 2kts on a course of 226 degrees. Our waypoint, off north Norfolk, is 225 miles at 159 degrees, so, you've got it, light headwinds. ETA Lowestoft is now Tuesday. We can, in theory still make the time-limit but we need to average 3.5kts VMG and right now it's only 0.5kts, so it's slipping away from us. There's little prospect of any substantial wind until Saturday afternoon. Then it's F3-4 headwinds which die off again on Monday night as we're closing north Norfolk where the tides are quite strong.

The last 24hrs have been up and down. 88 miles, which is a VMG of 3.66kts. For 2 hours we were totally becalmed, sea like a mirror. For a short while, in the early hours, we could make nearly 6kts, straight down the rumb line. Most of the time we've been ghosting at 2-3kts. Earlier on this was straight down the line and with favourable tide, which flattered our VMG, but now we're 60 degrees off the line with adverse tide and we're going nowhere.

Emma's daily positions update, sent at 1443, tells us that the following boats were then only about 30 miles behind and sailing much faster than us. We started in Lerwick about 20hrs ahead of them so it all depends when they fall into the centre of the high pressure and lose their wind too. Whatever, they've closed the gap and I'd say that it was touch and go whether we were still saving our time on Resolute.

The good news is that it's getting much warmer. I shed my thermals for the first time since The Lizard and donned shorts and a T shirt for most of the afternoon.

Unfortunately, our delicious gift of fresh haddock has left the fridge reeking of fish. It's quite overpowering when you lift the lid. Nothing much we can do at sea but it's going to get a very thorough clean in Lowestoft. Both water tanks have emptied themselves, so we haven't found the problem yet and we're on water rations again. Fortunately we took on plenty of bottled water in Lerwick as a contingency.

The cooker continues to play up. It's still usable, thank God, but we have to nurse it along. I'm trying to contact the Wallas agent in Lowestoft to get them to attend to it there.

As I write, the wind has just died completely again and I've furled the yankee and lashed the helm. It's a beautiful evening though .