L'Eau Commotion Westabout

8:45pm Sunday 15th October 2017 ( UTC+1 ) Yes, the day finally arrived that I hoisted the Asymmetrical spinnaker and what a rewarding experience it was. The wind had gradually eased through the early hours of the morning and after checking the forecast which predicted very light winds from the South West today would be it. The boat was barely moving by this time so I considered dropping a line over the stern to grab on to then common sense prevailed and the harness donned and clipped on. Just so there would be no snarl ups I furled the jib and set up the asymmetrical for hoisting which all went smoothly. With little roll and no lurching it was easy to move rapidly round the deck with the added confidence of the safety line which was no hindrance at all. I then went to the cockpit and was able to hoist the rolled up sail from there with no effort and a little tug of the sheet out billowed this lovely red sail. The wind was very light at around 5 knots but with the sail close hauled a full main and an apparent wind ang le of 50 degrees we were soon gliding along at 5 knots with an almost glassy surface to the sea. Though fairly gentle the wind would rise on occasion to seven or eight knots and the yacht would smoothly gain speed to six or seven knots. The sailing was sheer heaven. Later on in the day the wind eased to three or four knots but even then the yacht was making three or four knots through the water and all this time the helm was nicely balanced with the rudder angle rarely exceeding 2 degrees. A few hours ago the wind rose to about 15 knots with a tendency to round up but with an easing of the sheets and main and traveller we are now averaging seven and a half knots with a perfectly balanced helm and the apparent wind 110 degrees from the port bow, that is, almost a following true wind. This sailing is so good I will have to determine whether to rig a poled out jib and the asymmetrical hooked over the boom to go straight downwind or just to do the recommended track and tack dow nwind. The thought is the simple rig is easy to control and less chance of a snarl up in a squall though time is on my side with 2200miles to the Equator and fair winds forecast the whole way. --------------090506080907040505090703--