Into The Mystic - What goes up must come down

What goes up must come down

6th December 1818 hours

We can’t seem to catch ourselves the right wind, ever. It’s a different kettle of fish (pun intended) with you-know-what though - another biggie landed today. What the flippin’ heck are wedging to do with it all ?

This boat comes with a full suite of sails - several of which are designed specifically for this type of sailing ie downwind long-distance sailing. They are those ginormous sails that you may have seen flying in front of boats - spinnakers are one example. It’s quite and effort too put them up and get them down though especially in the kind of swells we are still experiencing. Hence the reason why Brad and Henry must be beginning to hate me. When we decided too take the crossing I was guided by two major principles (neither of which n necessarily come naturally t me) sailing safely and sailing conservatively. This has meant that we won’t fly the downwind sails in more than 20kts of wind. I think there must have been at least 5 occasions where Brad a d Henry have forayed forwards to the bow of the boat, clipping on to safety lines as they go, got ask the lines ad sheets prepared to hoist the sails and then I have bellowed to them from the helm ‘change of plan, forget it, too much wind’ as there instruments onboard start whirring upwards above the 20kt limit. They have never complained, not even once, but I know it must be a right PITA to go through all that and then be asked to not only stand down but to put everything away as well. I doff m y cap to them in thanks and offer my apologies.

The upshot of all the above is that we have only flown the downwind sails twice durum these 17 days at sea. We are cursed with too much wind sadly, we would have made the crossing in a much quicker time with lighter winds. Hey ho, not much we can do about that and I am delighted to say that we are all safe and the ‘sailing conservatively’ motto may not be winning us any prizes on the racing front but I’m feeling quite chuffed in my consistency in not exposing the crew to unnecessary risk. Sails that go up have the come down eventually as conditions deteriorate and thats when problems arise. We have a rope wrapped round one of our propellors for that very reason. Lesson learned, well and truly.

471 miles to go

The winds have dropped and its a lovely day = I uspoerct mot of the other boats will be flying there downwind sails. Not us, the Windex just hit 21kts (‘I can’t bloody believe it’) so we continue on our safe and secure path.

We will get there eventually.

L:ove to you all

The Mystics