Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Madeira Cape Verde Leg

Day 6

Saturday, July 12

Noon Position: 19 22.0N 22 21.3

Course/Speed: SW6

Wind: NE 15

Sail: Both headsails poled out full, wing and wing

Noon Miles: 147

Total Miles: 877

It has come to our attention that certain of the crew were dismayed by the jostling they got in their bunks in the wee hours of last night and are blaming such on the trade winds in the Atlantic. Here’s what really happened.

Overnight wind pulled into the N and created a tough situation for the sailor—the need to change his suit of sail when he doesn’t want to. Running under two poled out genoas has many advantages but distinct disadvantages: 1) it’s complicated to loft, gybe and lower the set; 2) it has a narrow operating wind angle. If the wind comes too far left or right of dead aft, the sails become uncomfortable, won’t fill properly, shiver themselves and the boat and generally behave like two bed sheets on a drying line.

The problem is that changing them is long process (30 minutes if alone, say, to gybe—change one for the other) and it was night and we were tired. So, I compromised; we shortening the windward sail and stiffening the lee.

The effect in the latter case was that it became flat as a board. A billowy headsail acts like a catcher’s mitt, accepting the wind and keeping it there for a time before releasing it to its wild ways and in this way stabilizes the boat. A stiffened sail is more like a kite, pushed back and forth in the boisterous breezes and the boat with it.

In short, my tactic plus a mature trade wind sea produced the rolliest of rolly nights I’ve yet experienced and nearly sent the crew in search of other boats and skippers who knew what the heck they were doing.

Luckily around midnight, wind came back to NE and Mo the Mechanical Bull ride machine ran out of quarters.

Today was pretty quiet. Did a bit make and mend.

If I didn’t know it, I might suspect there are islands nearby, in this case Cape Verde 157 miles to the south. Bird sightings have begun to increase—a few storm petrels, for example, even a few together. And late, a large herd of dolphin lolloped by for a play in Mo’s bow.