GEM - A Most Difficult Night

Yesterday’s wx fcst had us elated.Winds will shift to East and we can sail for next 36 hours.Not to be.The shift started toward sunset yesterday about 12 hours late and only went to E/SE which meant we could not sail.Cat’s don’ point very well, our apparent wind was in the 30’s we needed in the 40’s ideally 50.So we motorsailed on into confused swells and more pounding, we were able to use the main to ease the engines.At about 9:30 last night the apparent wind gusted into the low 30’s and there was another BANG (on Grant’s watch) and the mainsail had pulled the attachment points for the outhaul and the topping lift right out of the boom, tearing the aluminum casting at the top like it was a tin can. We immediately took the second reef in the mainsail (the only reef point remaining) and. read more...

GEM - SE wind woes - thank God for Superman and Garrison Keilor

We have had strong SE winds for several days now and the sea state and winds create a very uncomfortable slow march to the finish line ;-(Crew is tired of beating and being beaten but with 270 miles to go we are motorsailing to the mark with an ETA Wed afternoon.You may have noticed the zig zag in our track last night, we tried to get more east of the rhumb line hoping that the winds would shift to East/SE but as of 10:30 this am that hasn’t happened.Since we have plenty of fuel left (~60 % in both tanks) and are running on one engine we can follow this strategy as uncomfortable as it is.The other boats around us, Lucky Strike, Abigail and Club Carp appear to be tacking.We suspect they are low on fuel.I am confident that we’ll win the ‘Most Motoring” award :-)Yesterday right after. read more...

GEM - Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Some of you may remember the amusement park ride listed above.It’s claim to fame was that it was IN THE DARK.Without any visual input any ride seems scary. A lurching CAT at nite has Mr. Toad beat by a mile :-) The last 24 hours has been difficult, motoring through squalls, a lumpy sea and wind directly from the SE. Our DTF has gone up and if you are following our plot you’ll think that we are drunk, insane or just stupid.We are trying to ease the pounding and lurching so folks will feel more comfortable.Our lasts WX suggested this would continue till Monday so we are doing this and trying to get to 65 N in case the trades do fill in.If they don’t we may have to do this all the way to finish :-((.We have talked to Club Carp and Corsair and they seem to be doing the same. Lucky Strike. read more...

GEM - Things go BANG in the day... and night

So right after posting yesterday’s blog entry, the first reefing line on the main parted with a BANG, the line chafed through at the clew fitting which is a ring that guides the line back down to the boom fitting.The wind was blowing 30 knots + on a reach and we were doing 8+ kn.After some discussion about why this occurred and how we quickly set the second reef point since the wind was building anyway.Jim and I sailed in much heavier winds down to VA with one reef and had no problems.When it broke the tail of the line shot back into the boom so it can’tbe retrieved :-(. Why did it chafe through ?This is important as you’ll see shorty. During this fire drill the stbd genoa winch stuck in hi speed mode and would not shut off.We suspected the switch since this happened once before.We threw. read more...

GEM - Life in a Washing Machine ...

After motoring all day Wed we started to sail around 5 pm just as Jay was serving dinner.We had Chicken with Indian spices, rice and 2 different bean/veggie sides. Craig played sous chef.Seas and wind built overnight to steady 30’s as we approached a Low, Invest 97 I believe.At 1:30 am we took a reef in the main and rolled the jib sailing about 50 degrees of Apparent Wind.Boat was hobby horsing into some large seas and it made for an uncomfortable night.The crew likened it to being inside a washing machine, how true.At least it’s warm.We changed course to about 175 tohave the wind more to the beam,This helped increase boat speed to the mid 8”s but we still have a lot of wave action.As a result we are now West of the rhumb by about 25 miles.We can see 6 boats on our AIS display, KARINA,. read more...