Prepping for Rough Weather
The trade off for too little wind will be too much wind over the next week. We are grateful for the guidance of Charlie our router, who has already given us a heads up on the challenging conditions we will face this week and has advised us to turn west and stay north to avoid the highest winds of over 30 knots. Mike and I have already experienced some of what's to come on our Madeira passage with steep waves at 8-9 second apart instead of the big wide swells of the past week at 13 second apart. So these next couple days are all about boat prep and talking about safety with our wonderful crew.
Speaking of our wonderful crew, we discovered an issue with our AIS where we could see boats around us but we were not broadcasting our position to others.

We sent a text to the ARC community about our issue. We did get an alarm notification about this a few times but did not know what it meant. We called tech support who advised we replace our antenna. Hmmm, it's high on a pole and we do not have a spare. Instead, Pelle decided to trace the wires from the pole and found a sort of junction box where he carefully checked all connections tightening where possible. And soon boats nearby texted to say we were back on AIS! While Pelle doubts he "fixed" anything there is no doubt with our bumpy travels to Las Palmas that connections could have wiggled loose and Pelle's thinking and follow through had much to do with successful resolution of our issue. Thank you Pelle.
We took down our big blue sail that we kept up all last night and promptly passed several in the fleet.

The competitive brain tells us to keep it hoisted but cautious Marj said, time to get that down before the winds pipe up as forecast, as I called out increasing periods of higher winds. It's not easy to douse with rising winds, and we got the sail safely back in the bag just in time for steadier winds and other sail issues to solve. And with the boat now under main and jib she is flying along just as quickly.
We've all put on half patches for sea sickness even though we are probably acclimated to the boat. But the sea is confused and lumpy and the crew has yet to experience the boat really pounding and rolling in the big seas. It's best to stay ahead of potential illness and everyone tolerated the patch well on our first few days so we decided to be cautious.
Fishing poles are put away for now after quite a bit of fun, a friendly competition and a delicious meal Bruce made from the bounty.
I have been pulling pre-made meals from my freezer to eat for the week and cooking rice and noodles to minimize time in front of my swinging stove. The floors are cleared of clutter, light wind sails stowed below. True North was built for tough conditions and handles weather well and will rise to the challenges ahead. I won't blog until the weather calms a bit at the end of the coming week.
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