Too many interesting times
The Adventures of Allegria & Crew
Peter Lansdale
Tue 28 May 2024 10:20
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34:40.4N 065:38.8W
It's just before 0600 as I
write this. The sun has come up, the sky is blue with thin high scattered cloud
and all is well with the world.
Yesterday we had a
brilliant sail. it was hot and we were sailing on a broad reach making 8kts in
part due to a favourable counter current of more than one knot. That's what we
pay Chris Parker, the guru, for, knowing the best way to go. We changed the
genoa for the smaller jib as darkness was approaching which was a good decision
as the wind picked up a little.
Lynn was on watch 0900
to midnight and at about 1100 she
called me as the wind had increased quickly and an alarm was sounding. I
expected a high wind alarm, or off course alarm- there are so many possible
alarms on this boat, but it was the port side main bilge pump alarm. Up with the
floor board to see if we are sinking but no real problem. A small amount of
water was sloshing around and had set the sensor off.
Ignore the alarm, up on
deck to reduce sail to an appropriate amount. So rolled some mainsail in and
everything was returned to calm. Back to the bilge, cleared out about 5 litres
of water and calm returned, ie the alarm stopped. Back to bed, the watch changes
and Sean takes over. At about 0230 after the wind had been down for some
time Sean tries to roll out some mainsail to improve our speed and although it
comes out a little way it gets stuck. it will roll in but not out. I come out,
there follows much fiddling about and eventually we decide to leave it until it
comes light. It's my watch now 0300 to 0600.
At about 0500 after going
slowly for too long I decide I'll just have to create some noise and sort the
mainsail. Start the engine, roll away the jib and go head to wind. Mainsail
rolls out perfectly. You have got to wonder how many times I have to learn the
same lessons. When raising or lowering a mainsail the boat needs to be head to
wind. Just because the is a button which rolls the sail does not mean you can
ignore the fact that the boat needs to be head to wind to reduce or
increase sail.
Now we are
nicely sailing along and I'm waiting for everyone to surface from their
berths.
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