L'Eau Commotion Westabout

Day 78 Saturday 24th August 2019 ( UTC +0 )
There was hardly enough wind to move the strands of wool hanging limply from the aft stay but nevertheless the BiSymmetric and main with one reef managed to keep us moving at around 4 knots for all of last night and most of today. Admittedly not quite in the direction we should have been going but at least we were moving. Around dusk the storied Trades meekly made there appearance but even that gentle breeze has us slicing along at over 7 knots and right on course. The forecast has this increasing to 20 knots at most and from dead astern so the plan is to keep on course and if necessary put another reef in the main or even stow it completely. A big advantage of the BiSymmetric is the ease with which it can be furled. The furling line is a continuous rope which I loop round a mooring cleat then enough turns around a winch to take out the slack. In this way a few turns on the winch handle and easing of each sheet and everything is kept under control. I had a sock on the spinnaker on Katherine Ann but it felt a bit clumsy standing on the foredeck and pulling down on the retrieve while keeping the hoist rope from tangling as well as handling the sheets. And of course this is always done with the wind a few knots stronger than it should have been.