Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 8

Wednesday began with moderate winds (around 15kts) still from the northwest but the forecast was for it to drop off during the day to around 10kts and to veer from northwest to northeast by the early hours of Thursday morning. We had pleasant sailing through until lunchtime, at which point the wind, as promised, began its gradual decrease and veer. We took the opportunity of a particularly deep lull to drop the mainsail and reattach one of the mast track cars to the luff connector. This was the second mainsail luff connector that had become detached from its track car, the first having been on day 2 of the passage, which was down to the securing pin having sheared. We assumed that the same had happened this time but, actually, the securing pin had started to migrate up and out of the track car, releasing the connector from the car. It was easy enough to put everything back together again, but we realised that this wasn’t the only car/connector combo with a migrating securing pin. Having checked all the cars, and tapped the pins back into place as necessary, we rehoisted the mainsail as the wind had returned. A chore for the fix list for when we are in port.

The dark clouds which affected the wind

My afternoon watch was a real mixed bag with the wind up and down and all over the place as dark squall clouds passed close by stealing the wind or pushing it to excess. 

The genoa now poled out to starboard which takes a bit of work – it’ll probably be needed on the
other gybe in 20 mins!!!

As soon as I had set the sails for one wind direction, it was all change and the sails needed to be in a different configuration. Hugely frustrating!

By the evening we had decided that the only sensible option was to motor. Under power, being pushed along intermittently by the 2m swell and with only 7kts of wind from astern, the mainsail slatted and banged horribly, and we could almost see the damage being done to the new material. We rounded up and dropped the sail which made everything a lot more pleasant. Fortunately, the forecast has the wind getting stronger for the rest of the passage so we are hopeful that by dawn we'll be sailing again.

A nautical roundabout for ships?

From the photos it might look like there is no other traffic close, but you do need to keep a good look out both visually and electronically. We’re currently on the extended approach to the Straits of Gibraltar and so there is a reasonable amount of shipping passing by. Bizarrely, just before midnight we found ourselves close to what seems to be a nautical roundabout for ships; 4 of them all pointing in different directions nearly spaced in a circle.  Just a fluke of timing. 

Passage Statistics
Position at midday 10 Sep: N37 27.35 W015 07.81
Position at midnight (0030hrs) 11 Sep: N36 20.17 W015 25.06
Midday to midday distance through water: 157 nautical miles (average 6.5 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 151 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 148 nautical miles (average 6.2 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 142 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 1062 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 201 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 8