End of Day 15 Beaufort NC USA towards Guernsey

This Blog entry is an edited version of the message we sent back whilst we were on the passage.  The original, without pictures, was sent by radio with a laptop that controls a modem connected to the HF/SSB radio.  With that set up we can contact one of the SailMail stations to send the daily text message to my daughter Charlotte in Guernsey who then forwards it on to a list of family members.

2359hrs (O, GMT -2) Fri 12 Jun 2020

Dear All,

Those of you who checked our tracking this morning will have noticed that last night we turned abruptly and started sailing towards the Labrador Sea which sits between north Canada and Greenland.  At 3am, in the space of about 5 minutes the wind flipped from west at 12 knots to northeast at 20 knots.  We had been expecting this abrupt windshift but it arrived a few hours earlier than anticipated.  At the time, the genoa was held out to starboard by the spinnaker pole and the main out to port by the preventer; we had far too much sail up for 20 knots of wind and were in completely the wrong configuration.  Nicky heard the racket of the wind backing the sails and got up to help to change the sail plan.  Between us we rolled away the genoa, put 2 reefs in the main, set the staysail and headed off just south of east, close hauled on port tack with >20 knots of wind over the deck.

Chris Parker's routing advice should have had us sailing east on the 44 degrees N line of latitude at this stage with about 15 knots of wind on a close reach, aiming to hit the westerly winds on the north side of a high pressure forming out to our east.  Over the course of the day we had been studying the forecasts very carefully and had already decided to head further north to the 45 degrees N line of latitude before turning.  However, things had changed more drastically.

With Nicky up, we had our breakfast routing conference a few hours early at 0330hrs to discuss the latest GRiB file data I'd downloaded.  In short, Chris' plan from a couple of days ago, was no longer sensible because the high pressure we were supposed to get on the northern side of had formed further north than expected and, on our assessment, turning east on that windshift was a bad decision for several reasons: 1.  Sailing on port tack hard on the NE wind (not N wind as had been forecast a couple of days before) we would be tracking about 120 degrees M not east, so we'd be heading for the south side of the high pressure and would hit headwinds which would push us further south.  2.  Tracking further south than intended would eventually put us into the strong northerly winds that were keeping all the yachts in port in Horta in the Azores. 3.  The deep low pressure tracking down towards the Azores, combined with a high out to our west, has formed a stronger than previously expected compression zone just to the east of us and what was supposed to be a 15-20 knot northerly wind in which we would sail east is now actually going to be a 25-35 knot wind.

If we turned east we would be very uncomfortably close-hauled in winds of 25-35 knots, making it about 30-40 knots of wind over the deck.  Nasty.  Our leeway and the confused sea would push us a long way south of where we would want to track and there is no good forecast wind to get us back up to favourable winds for sailing towards the UK.

Bashing to windward but heading towards Greenland not England

So we tacked onto starboard tack and headed close-hauled towards Greenland!  That's not quite as mad as it sounds though.  Our plan was to keep heading hard on the wind towards Greenland maybe until about Saturday morning, maybe a bit earlier, depending on how the winds panned out.  At that point we'd tack back towards the east when the worst of the compression zone winds should be to our southeast and we'd be able to make some good progress east in 20 knot winds for a day or so.  At that point, it'd be nice to say that we'll pick up some more helpful winds on the top end of the high pressure which should also have migrated south by then. A delayed version of Chris Parker's plan.  Unfortunately, it looks like the ridge of high pressure will remain north of us. So, sometime between Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoon we need to teleport ourselves north through that high pressure area to its north side where some southwest winds are building, formed, we think, between the high pressure ridge and one, or perhaps 2, low pressure areas to the north of that ridge.  The low pressure area(s) could potentially bring 30+knot southwesterly winds from Thursday next week; one to monitor carefully - I think we've said that before!  So, mid to late next week we could have a real roller coaster ride for a few days but at least we would be heading towards the English Channel and downwind at that!

The verdict on yesterday’s bread was that it needed much longer
 to rise; my sour dough starter doesn’t like the cold temperatures
 at these latitudes!

Aside from all of that it's feeling distinctly chilly!  For the last 7 months we haven't seen sea temperatures below 23 degrees Celsius [Ed: and mostly at 28 degrees] and the air temperature has been around 30 degrees for the majority of that time.  The sea is now 14 degrees Celsius and the air temperature is 10-15 degrees; it's a bit of a shock to the system for us!  Just as well that we have rich chocolate fudge brownies to go with our late morning coffee and a hearty soup ready for lunch to keep our energy levels up [Ed: and lots of warm clothes on board that haven't seen the light of day in months/years!].

At 1800hrs the wind backed so that we ended up heading more west than northwest.  We took that as an earlier than expected opportunity to tack and to start making progress back towards the east-northeast.  If the wind gets to be too strong overnight we can always tack back towards the lighter winds in the northwest but hopefully we won't need to do that and so will progress in a helpful direction overnight.

Dolphins!  A large pod of Atlantic spotted and Common dolphins

It wasn't all weather analysis and sailing strategy.  We were visited several times today by dolphins which was fun; Nicky battled against the boat movement slaving in the galley and produced a lovely pork stroganoff for dinner; we had our coffee and cake late morning; sundowners in the early evening; checked in with the other yachts on 2 SSB radio nets; and we still managed to fit in the routine chores such as keeping the water tanks full and batteries charged.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 12 Jun: N44 58 W037 39

Position at midnight 12 Jun: N45 36 W037 30

Midday to midday distance through water: 134 nautical miles (average 5.6 knots).

Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 126 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance through water: 154 nautical miles (average 6.4 knots)

Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 130 nautical miles

Total miles covered through water: 2388 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Guernsey): 1420 nautical miles

End of Day 15 Beaufort, North Carolina, USA towards Guernsey