We just took the reef 1 out of the main and use the potential of the 64 m2 main sail together with the genoa of 49 m2, and the small jib with 8 m2, and MaRe makes at TWS of 5.2 KN a STW of 4.1 KN. That’s not a bad performance. I also straightened…

I’m outside at the helm station checking the wind vane angle, which is ok. Looking towards E I see a silver grey shiny sea with taints of a red-orange from the sun still being behind the horizon. The eastern edges of the cumulus clouds are painted as well on soft red-orange. Some of the towers…

Shortly after midnight we entered the lull. The wind went down and MaRe’s died as well. She moves at 0530 (UTC+13) with 3 KN STW and a COG of 220 deg. The ratio of VMG/SOG of still 0.9, thus no need to tack right now. Later I’ll remove the reef 1 from the main sail…

Headaches is what I have because it’s not possible to make a plan on how to go through the lull which we reach tomorrow. Yesterday, I did a lot of calculations and simulations on how to go through the 300 NM north-south extension of this lull. I started on the E and far on the…

Part 1 of the tactics was successful. I could get out of the lull zone at the northern edge. For most of yesterday we only sailed slowly but steadily with the Big Blue. However in the early evening hours, we were out of the lull zone and MaRe sailed with almost 9 KN. At 1945,…

Wind is low. Big Blue is pulling. Waves are below 50 cm. A short but very low swell rolls on. Nothing disturbs the view to the edges of the big grey blue “disk”. After a leisurely breakfast in the cockpit, Boh cleared up the pantry, I did and still do some IT work. Boh reads…

I could identify an escape route. WPT01: 27 deg 20.55 min S, 176 deg 54.93 min E WPT02: 32 deg 58.37 min W, 175 deg 01.05 min E WPT03 is already the approach WPT for Mardsen Cove Marina. Until WPT01 we will use the Big Blue and then the main at full size plus the…

“I want to turn around and sail N because here it’s too cold here” I said to Boh when I got up from the salon sofa to start my watch duty. It was the last time I could sleep on the salon sofa without a blanket! When I looked at the thermometer at the navigation…

Where is the best way to go around the lull without going too much W and being in the right position to use the northerly winds on Wednesday to make it to Mardsen Cove Marina by keeping in mind that weather forecasts have errors? Above sentence describes the complexity of finding the right route for…

The title indicates already that we don’t have much wind. 4 Bft means winds between 11 – 15 KN. Unfortunately it goes often down to 10 KN but very seldom to 16 KN. The only good thing is that, due to the lower waves, we can sail with an AWA of 60deg and it’s not…