Törn: 136.19
Datum: 9.07.2019
Mittagsposition: 57°42.5‘ N 008°25.6‘ E
Das Wetter: 19.5°Air, 15.5°Sea, Clear, Wind NE 7-10 Knots, Smooth Seas
Blow Ye Winds Westerly – But Not Yet!
The inconsistent wind patterns continued today. By noon the wind that had been with us was getting distracted, and eventually took off for another part of the sea. At one point I was on lookout and realized we were slowly spinning like a top. We were trying every trick we knew to keep going, as we only had a little farther to go to make the west waypoint, and the forecast had the wind clocking around to be westerly at 1800.
No sailboat can sail directly into the wind, and although yachts can usually get pretty high into the wind (closer to the direction the wind is coming from) with their triangular sails, anything square rigged does best with the wind from astern. Having the wind in our teeth would delay us by a few hours and require a lot of extra manuvers and effort from the crew.
Two nautical miles short of the mark the wind clocked as predicted, and the 4-8 watch had their hands full tacking the ship. Jaquline’s watch had the ship heeled over so far showering was impossible because the water wouldn’t drain. At 21:22 those who were awake felt the ship glide through a wide turn- and we had rounded the waypoint! Now we could sail easily (and more or less horizontally) with the wind.
A little later we passed the Mexican Navy sail training vessel Cuauhtemoc, and sailed close enough to them to exchange friendly cheers across the water. Standing on top of the chart house hollering to fellow sailors as the sun set, I felt very fourtunate indeed to be at sea. A feeling that stayed with me even as I realized I had less than an hour to sleep before I needed to be up for my watch.