Dawn - the pleasures of a beam reach
30 August 2010 | Bora Bora to Tonga, day 12
Joe
Dawn, day 12, starb'd tack beam reach, wind north 8 - 9 knots seas slight, course 240 magnetic. 250 miles to go. Cup of tea, wind warm enough to wear only boxers and sleeveless top, We're doing 5 knots tops, mostly a bit less, nice going. Yesterday and last night wind light, sails flip-flopping, but now, I can hear the bow wave's quiet roar.
The reef ..
We passed Antiope Reef in the dark, night before last, with the engine running, and the autopilot finding a safe path around the reef. Then - very little wind, we made only 2 to 3 knots under sail...
Four sails flying . could be five, but can't set the mizzen* ...
A ketch has 2 masts , and if you set a small triangular sail from the weather rail to the mizzen (smaller mast at the back) masthead, it's called a mizzen stays'l. The weather rail is on the weather side - that's where the wind is coming from, and today it's the starb'd (right-hand) side. It took me only a bit longer to set the mizzen stays'l for the first time yesterday as it took for me to explain it to you. With the mizzen stays'l, the genoa, the stays'l (another staysail at the bow), the genoa and the main - that's 4 sails - each curved like a spoon and pulling hard, we are SAILING!
My half-and-half Rule ...
The beam reach, which they call a "soldier's wind" is so easy anyone (even a soldier) could do it, has the wind side on, or halfway between bow and stern. I discovered that if the wind is doing 6 knots you can sail 3 knots on a beam reach, if the wind is at 5, then 2.5, and today the wind is enjoying 10 knots so we fly at 5, sometimes dropping to 8 when it's 4 for the boat. You get the idea, I call it the half and half rule: wind halfway on, boatspeed half that of the wind. File it away for now.
Clouds ...
Clouds are a language I would read, if I could. The white ones have precisely arranged bottoms as to altitude while their tops are madly individualistic. Mountains of nothing. Who would wish to go to heaven if you merely sat, holding a harp (or even a banjo!) on an apparition. Have you noticed how the grazing animals eat the trees up to exactly the same level everywhere? That is what has happened to the clouds - the winds have eaten them exactly up to there. Then the dark heavy looking ones, and the low drifting ones - where do you think you're going? - what do they mean to the sailor reading their signs? The huge black ones have gone leaving me wondering where they have disappeared to. I wish I was cleverer .
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* On day 6 the mizzen halyard broke - the pin fell out of the shackle where the mizzen sail joins onto the halyard. The halyard retreated to the masthead; I don't like the idea of going up the mast to get it while the vessel is rolling in the rolly waves.