Author: Bernd via DL9BS/mm Page 2 of 12
It is 4:30am and I have just taken over the watch from Susan, when she mentioned a strange noise. It was different to the creaky sound coming from the interior furnishing of the boat, which synchronises with the rythm of the waves and boats’ heeling and you simply ignore after a while.
While taking a closer look with the headlamp, I found a flying fish on the cockpit floor fighting for his life. These poor looking creatures leave a bit of a mess with descaling after landing and oozing some mucus while also spreading some stinky smell. I don’t like them, hardly accept them outside the cockpit but get annoyed, if they come too close. On the photo, which I will add once we have WiFi again, you can see the flying wings still foldet out, trying to take off again, but no chance.
Once the wings are folded in, you know, this creature will not thrash around anymore once you pick it up and throw it back into their living environment, now becoming their graveyard. The whole process from flip to fold in takes around one minute, I would guess. I have a flexible gripper arm, about 90cm long, which helps me often to fish fallen things out of hidden places in the boat they have fallen in while doing boat work. Very useful tool, also in terms of getting rid of flying fish without touching them at all.
We got a welcome visitor during the last night, a puzzled seagull. I was sitting in the cockpit, when I heard some unusual noise on the other side of the spray hood under the mast top. It has hit somehow the boom and felt down on the teak. After sitting on the boat for some time it flew off leaving some of its business behind.
The last 32nm happened quickly. The wind brought us up to the port entry where we took down the spinnaker pole once protected from the waves and motored into the marina. The marina staff were very attentive and supportive to secure the boat in a berth at winds still blowing 20kn – never stopping trade winds.
There will be some delay in cleaning the logblog as I have to work per the priorities on the To-Do-List, which got longer again. Some routine work but also some new issues like the water maker high pressure pump shutting down seconds after start. And finally I want to get on the bike and explore the area.
Thanks for joining.
Fair winds…
It is 1:30am UTC in the morning and the zigzag is over. We have gybed under bare pole with the Hydrovane only and slowly returned back into our lane of approach towards the waypoint set in the middle of the entrance channel between Sao Vincente and Santo Antao. Running 2.8kn boat speed and 3.6kn speed over ground caused by the pushing current at 19kn TWS on the stern with no sails at all up. Still irritates me a bit but I never tested this before.
Sunrise is at 6:50am Cabo Verde time, which is 7:50am UTC. Coming from Canary Islands, we still have UTC on our watches. 8am UTC arrival time is perfectly fine then. We have a bit of float now in the schedule, so we can get the spinaker pole down and some water with our water maker produced. It never produced water into the boat´s own water tanks, so today is maiden day for the system on this aspect. Things will change from here onwards anyway. We have left Europe and are going into a developing country. Poverty is a subject on the Cabo Verde Islands. It was clear to me that the arrival into Mindelo will be the spicy part of this passage. Acceleration zone between the two islands, sea charts stating “watch out for unmarked wrecks” on the approach to the marina, unlit buoys, full anchorage in front of the marina, etc. I got a reservation confirmed, that should help. Hope their committment has not changed.
Despite all the uncertainties I am totally excited to pay a visit to this place and its people.
Good I rested the nights & days before as this night will require full attention until we are securely berthed.
About 25nm to reach the waypoint and 32nm for the berth.
Fair winds…
We have just now sailed 800nm without taking the mainsail out once and only flying the 110% foresail. It got sometimes fully deployed, sometimes partly reefed and sometimes not even unfurled. With or without spinnaker pole.
This gave me some food for thought on sail arrangements and after a long and heated discussion with the lady we concluded the following concerning the mainsail.
The mainsail is good for two purposes:
#1. Obviously you cannot take the lady out on a catwalk without having mainsail out. Imagine, sailing the parade alongside many other boats, whereever in the world, and no mainsail out. The yacht will only look complete and attractive under full set of sails. No doubt.
#2. The mainsail is also needed, from a technical point of view, if the skipper wants to bang his head against the wall. In other words, the skipper wants, or has to, sail against the wind. Technically you will need some mainsail out to make that work properly.
In all other circumstances the mainsail remains a nice to have, which brings minium speed advantage but plenty of headache. The mainsail can become a huge risk under certain broad reach courses, especially with increasing wind angls in windy and wavy conditions. Numerous times this was the reported root cause of serious injuries or even death in worst case or best case de-masted yachts desperately crying for help. Some had preventer lines some maybe not.
I had my own experience around 2005 when Susan and myself approached Hasle in Denmark on our beautiful HR34 at that time. We did the unintentional gybe and I found my glasses next to me on the cockpit bench and cannot recall how they got there. The only thing I remember is that the boom did not bang my head as in this case I would probably not be sitting here typing these lines. Perpaps I did defend my head against the boom with my hands and by doing so the glasses flew off. I cannot recall the exact circumstances but understood at that time, that I was lucky.
Sometimes speed could be a good reason and the extra knot you would get from the mainsail might bring you into the marina before the storm kicks in or it´s getting dark but passage planning can partly compensate for that. Perhaps not in each and any case but it´s worth a consideration.
I am sure this subject can be debated further but personally I feel much more relaxed keeping the main furled into the mast even though I arrive a bit later at my destination.
We will need to decide on our sail configuration for the upcoming crossing of the Atlantic towards the Caribbean.
Fair winds…