Not so roaring anymore 40s, South Pacific 20 April 2011, position at 6:45 a.m. Tahiti Time 40S56 145W06
Despite all your dedicated knocking on wood on our behalf, after a day of slamming into the low, winds increased to 35 knots (with gusts way over that), and the seas were steep and boisterous. At 2 a.m. yesterday we switched tactics and hove to (a.k.a. hunkered down). That’s a sail configuration that basically sets you on a controlled drift. For the uninitiated, you backwind the foresail (bringing its sheet to the windward side of the boat), that jib sail will then want to point downwind, and the staysail (still in it’s normal position) will want to head foreward (we dropped the main completely). With the helm then locked pointing to windward, the boat find its balanced state with the nose off the wind it slows way down and drifts to leeward.
In this weather, we slowed down from 7 to about 4 knots at a 120 degree angle from the wind, so not quite moving backwards, still gaining some easting, but one heck of a lot more comfortable, than the teeth jarring pounding we were experiencing.
We have hoved to before, but only as a holding tactic to wait for daybreak before attempting a landfall. I don’t recall a time we’ve tried it due to weather. That’s either a testament to the captain’s good weather planning tactics, or to his tenacious nature – never wanting to give up a hard earned mile. And as he points out we basically lost a day. I’m not sure where we lost it to, it felt like a pretty normal day to me, we got lots of sleep, watched movies, read a lot, none of which we were doing the day before (well, to be truthful, none of which I was doing the day before – the crew have barely stopped reading to sleep in the past 10 days). I think Hove To is my new favorite point of sail;) Frank’s bummed, next time we get the slightest bit of weather, I’ll be advocating, “Hove to, Hove to, Let’s hove to!” It really was amazing to me how quickly everything settled down, how quickly my white knuckles turned pink, and how quickly and soundly I slept.
So as predicted, by midnight last night the winds died down, the storm sails came down, and we were off, trying to exit the 40s again motoring at 4 knots – feast or famine, all or nothing, how about a little more even wind distribution?? The seas while no longer steep are peaky and confused at their new windless state, “Where’d all the wind go?” Not the most comfortable condition, but the crew does not seem to mind – we’re definitely acclimated to this southern ocean.
So Christina researched knocking on wood for me, and it may come from medieval germanic superstitions about entering the forest and politely letting the mischievous Waldgeist know you’re coming. Next time, I better come up with a better more seaworthy way to have you all request luck for us out here – suggestions welcome. Although we did do just fine, thanks for the help.
All’s well onboard.
xoxomo