by Rich Wilson | Dec 6, 2016 | Ship's Logs
What a day. Although we had crossed the significant Prime Meridian a few days ago to enter the Eastern Hemisphere, today we crossed 20 degrees East, which goes through Cape Agulhas, the southern most tip of Africa, and signals to the mariner the entrance to the Indian...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 5, 2016 | Ship's Logs
Last night and today, after the fractional gennaker was put back in service, our education continued. It is essentially impossible to put a reef in the mainsail while going downwind. One can winch down on the luff reef lines, but one is putting a huge load on them...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 4, 2016 | Ship's Logs
Yesterday, a small breakage gave a big problem. Today, we have made a repair and are back near 100% on it. The fractional gennaker, which I have been growing to like with its manageability (compared to the masthead gennaker) and versatility (compared to the narrow...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 3, 2016 | Ship's Logs
It’s a big day to cross into a new hemisphere. Like crossing the Equator, yesterday we crossed the Prime Meridian, watching the West longitude change to East longitude on the GPS. Now we are out of both of our comfort zones, the Northern and Western Hemispheres!...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 2, 2016 | Ship's Logs
Another difficult night. The long forecast front came through on schedule, for us about midnight. The wind would shift dramatically from Northwest to Southwest (approximately) with the only unknown being how strong the wind would be, and how rapid the directional...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 1, 2016 | Ship's Logs
A difficult night. The wind picked up, and the speeds picked up, and it is nerve-wracking. I don’t like it. We switched from the fractional gennaker to the solent to the staysail, all with 2 reefs in the mainsail, and I would have put in a 3rd if I’d had...
