Crossing Biscay. Day 2 Sunday June 9th -> Monday.

 

Sunday was a day of continuing good progress, seas still lumpy, but we felt we wanted to eat as normally as possible, albeit out of bowls rather than plates, which we held onto whilst eating.   We passed Lands End at noon and Wolf Rock an hour later. 




Liz was now getting into the passage, and had overcome earlier feelings of seasickness, and prepared a wonderful lunch.   Rice salad, salmon, tomatoes, and beans remaining from the previous evening’s Ox cheek casserole.  All washed down with the finest mineral water on board.


As we saw Lands End disappear behind us, we studied the several alternative weather forecasts we’d downloaded before losing mobile coverage.  The forecasts all pointed the same way, that in the early hours of Monday morning we could expect stronger winds again.

During my sunset watch, 9pm to midnight, the wind strengthened from 3 /4 to 5/6 , always from the direction WNW.  We gradually reefed until we had two reefs in the main and three reefs in the foresail. 

For a period of six hours we sustained winds of 25 knots (force 6) on our beam, gusting to 30 knots and with seas rolling into our starboard, windward side, occasionally large, making the boat quite uncomfortable.

We’d experienced strong winds before, but never for such a sustained period, and never in such exposed conditions.  At one point Liz and her mattress slid off her bunk completely.  The boat was noisy too, from the rushing of the sea, as we pounded along,  the howling of the wind in the sails, and the creaking of the ropes, winches and boat structure as it rolled and bent to the wind and the waves.

We didn’t sleep too well.

Every displacement boat has a theoretical “Hull speed”, a function of the waterline length, and faster than which the boat cannot travel.  Eas Mhor’s waterline is 11 meters and hull speed is 8 knots.  Throughout the night we were racing along at 7 – 8 knots, regularly logging 21 miles during a 3 hour watch.

By sunrise, the wind had eased.   At 8am I spotted my first dolphin of the trip, and by 9am, we were sailing with full sails in a WNW 4.

Comments

  1. BrettJune 21, 2024 at 2:07 PM

    Hull speed is something I’ve never heard of… I wonder why the hull is limited inn such a way. As a Physicist I should know such thins, but I don’t! So now I will be doing some research 🙂

    ReplyDelete

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