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Adagio - Air, Light. Until Further Advised



Light Air. Generally less than 10 kts and sometimes "flukey"; variable in direction and speed. We just finished about 36 hours in light air, well, relatively light air as we saw some 'puffs' to about 15 kts. At first it was very, very nice to relax into the quieter air as compared to the 'sporty' conditions approaching 30 kts earlier in the leg. We have a couple of light air sails at our disposal and rigged them so we could enjoy a fairly quiet, although not-as-yet-so-smooth rise since the swells had not really settled down from the days of higher winds.


Nonetheless, we enjoyed the quiet and got used to the slower speeds that light air usually brings. And then the slower ... and slower speeds that ~very light~ air brings. Eventually we had to dose the sails and motor for a while to get through the quietest of it all but soon we were flying the 'chute' and making good progress again. ... only not really, exactly in the direction we wanted to go.

The winds being what they are, and the sails being especially adept at downwind or slightly off downwind sailing, we soon found ourselves carving a graceful arc across the chart plotter as we chased our point of sail. I mean, after all, NorthEast is part "East" isn't it? as is South-southeast??? So, there we were ... The Horse Latitudes ... a wily high meandering around trying to get us centered in its becalming eye but we persevered ... against all odds we clawed out 3, the 4, then ummm 4 more knots and gradually found our way to more favorable conditions. When the wind picked back up, we again doused the colorful (and dare I say "CLASSY") Gennaker and ran conventional sails. Yay! for 18 kts of wind!!

Chafe took its toll on a clew line at about 1 A.M. Wednesday morning and suddenly our Gennaker was waving freely in front of us. Everyone was quickly awakened and on deck and the sail was recovered into its sock, a new line installed and the chafe point negated. All told, we didn't lose more than about 20 minutes in the cool, dark, misty, foggy air. Time for a nice cup of warm-up hot chocolate after that one. Thankfully it was just a chafe-through and not a sudden burst of wind which might have torn the sail.

The dolphins came to play this morning; lots of them. This was the biggest pod we've seen this trip and they were hanging all around the boat. It never gets old! I'd heard on the radio check-ins that some other boats saw whales but we've not been that fortunate (yet).

As a closing note, I received my first email via SSB from Belgium today. As a first-time Atlantic crosser, that felt somehow significant when I realized that the closer stations will very soon be in Europe. It's a big ocean and we're having a great time getting across her!


Gary
Adagio

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