L'Eau Commotion Westabout

Day 33 10pm Wednesday 10th July 2019
Thanks to Glenda of Sailblogs Admin the position of L'Eau Commotion should now appear on a map on the Sailblogs site as well as on Windy Tracker. The BiSymmetric* has now been up for over a day now and is living up to its high expectations. To reduce slapping when the wind drops below six or eight knots I put one reef in the main last night but otherwise there has been no sail change. It seems to operate best with the true wind just ten or twenty degrees to Port of dead astern and whenever the puffs get over ten or twelve knots it takes off with an effortless 8 to 10 knots on the GPS or water speed read out, though with the often light airs the average speed has been just 6.4 knots over the last day of 22h 18 m. When the wind drops a little and the boat speed is down to say 4 knots there is no apparent wind at deck level so the yacht has been constantly on autopilot. The Watt & Sea hydrogenerator is keeping up the batteries admirably with this load as well as all instruments and whatever lights are being used. I will try the Windpilot once the breeze settles down and to this end I intend to change tack tomorrow to head further North as the forecast wind goes more to the East and increases slightly.
*BiSymmetric - A combination word to describe the combination of two Asymmetric sails on the one flexible furler first ascribed to William Hatfield ( 1939 - )