Evening all.
Through the night I had winds of 25-30 knots from the North. From Bobs forecast I knew that the strongest winds would hit at around 6am when the winds veered to the North. At 2300 the winds were already coming from the North and increasing in strength from 15 knots to 20 knots. I made the call to put the third reef back in in the dark, just in case this Northly shift was also bringing me those extra winds. Through the night, I maintained the 25 knots of wind as the average with gusts of 33 knots. The boat was sailing well through the night and making pretty good speeds of 8-10 knots. I was sailing a course of 080 True so I was close reaching on the sail angle.
Come sunrise not much had changed. It wasn’t until late afternoon today that I noticed the winds beginning to average 20 knots and only gust up to 25knots. I find that I can maintain some good speeds with 3 reefs in the main and 20 knots of wind provided the winds are behind me, pushing me along. Given that I was sailing close to the wind, up wind, as soon as the winds dropped off so did my speed.
I didn’t think there were any hidden surprise waiting for me in the win so I have just come back from shaking out reef 3. The boat has just taken off jumping from 5 knots of boat speed to 8.5 knots almost right away and she is now happily sailing along.
Today is also the first time that I have felt fatigued during this trip. I think all those half nights’ sleeps are finally catching up to me. I woke up this morning with a mild headache that has continued to build through the day. I often get these at sea and for me are directly related to how much sleep I have had. No sleep = big headache.
So understanding that a good sleep almost always makes them go away I spent most of today I laying in my bunk…….. wishing that my throbbing head would disappear. I did manage a little more sleep but it has had zero effect on my pounding head. Finally, at around 5pm my local time I took some paracetamol and tried for that last little bit of sleep. It hasn’t worked. I know from experience that only a good night’s sleep with fix it... Ahhhhhhh
I have also noticed that I feel a bit weaker than normal. When I shook that reef out, it wasn’t until I coped a nice big wave of icy cold water in the face that I felt awake and present. I also needed that little bit of extra energy to get the sail up, more than normal.
Well here’s hoping for some decent sleep tonight and I hope that I bounce out of bed in the morning feeling right as rain...
Night all.
#climateaction
#lisablair
#capehorn
