Dy 101 - Moderate Progress Upwind and Gale

I had a quiet night. I went to bed at 1 AM with only 30 or 40 sq ft of headsail out so I saw no need to interrupt my sleep for a night check and set the alarm for 0730, to give me another crack at a fax out of Rio at 0750 (which failed). The wind had moderated to 15 knots and the sea had calmed down and better yet, the wind had veered putting us on a course of WNW. I didn't waste much time in rolling out plenty of headsail and hardening the mainsheet, and soon we were doing 3.3 knots on course 300T.

The night's grib file indicated that this northerly wind would last another 15 hours, which would give me another 50 miles of progress toward Mar de Plata, which was now just under 600 miles away. After the 15 hours there would be a period of weakening and backing wind, leading to a 2 or 3 hour period of 35 knot winds out of the SSW as the system passed through. It was tempting to drop the mainsail and run before it with a tiny bit of headsail and steering by hand, but I figured that that in the world of grib files 35 knots could easily turn out to be 40 knots so I decided to keep the mainsail up and at the appropriate time tack the boat and heave to on the starboard tack, presenting the strong side of the rigging. Besides, all of this would happen in pitch black dark after the moon was down and I wanted to minimize the possibility of an unexpected problem. I wanted to see how the boat hove to under mainsail anyway. For a few hours we would making way toward the south, but that was the price that I would have to pay. After the blow there would be a period of 6 hours or so when I could resume my track to the WNW (on the weak port tack of the boat, unfortunately) until the wind died down. Anyway, for now the sky was clear, the sun was out, and I was looking forward to a second good day of sailing to the strong side of the boat.

At noon our position was 45S35, 050W05, giving us a n-n distance of 62 miles in the direction 285T. We were 570 miles SE of Mar del Plata

That distance was covered with a continuous northerly wind and lots of hard pounding, and I'm afraid that it is as good as it will get when driving upwind. The problem is that as the wind builds up the seas also build up forcing the reduction of sail. This morning the wind picked up into the high 20's and I was force to repeatedly shorten sail reducing our speed to 2.5 knots. Then there is the direction problem. Under ideal conditions I can point the boat maybe 30 degrees off the wind. But with the huge amount of yawing caused by the boat being knocked around by the waves I must add a hefty margin of around 15 degrees to prevent the headsail from luffing excessively. That puts me 45 degrees off the wind. But then there is the lee, which is the pushing of the boat sideways by the wind and waves, and is considerable in a strong wind. Yesterday I did a careful check of our compass heading, adjusting for magnetic variation. I compared that with our actual Course Over the Ground (COG) and found a 20 degree difference. What this means is that I am actually sailing 65 or 70 degrees off the wind.

Combine the speed and direction problems with the idle times becalmed or hove to and I figure that I'll be lucky to average 30 miles a day to my destination. Yes, I'll play the winds and try to exploit every advantage possible and I might get lucky, but at the moment I'm resigned to a 20 day passage of the 570 miles to Mar de Plata.

Not long after the noon report the wind picked up to a higher level, eventually qualifying as a gale with speeds of 33 and 34 knots and gusts in the high 30's. I rolled in the headsail and started experimenting with heaving to. I disengaged Jeff then held the wheel hard to weather to see if the boat would have a stable heading and not try to cross the wind and tack. That worked out OK so I lashed the wheel and pulled the traveller to weather to bring the mainsail amidships, figuring that if I could line the boat with the sail the bow would be more head on to the oncoming waves. I watched for 30 minutes and saw that the boat had a tendency to point 30-45 degrees off the wind, though once it a while it would be knocked to 60 and 70 degrees off and quickly recover. In general the boat seemed to be meeting the big waves more from head on than the side, which was a vast improvement on the past. The boat was pointing NW, the wind was the N, and we were making 0.6-0.9 knots over the ground to the SW. I considered the heaving to a success, though I would have liked to have seen the boat a little closer to the wind.

With the headsail rolled up, the wheel lashed from two sides, and the mainsail set I had done everything I could for the boat and left it to its own devices. Down below the boat was not as stable as I would have liked and I hoped one day to try heaving to with also a backwinded staysail or small jib.

It's interesting how my psychology changes during a blow. Normally I fret about wind directions, boat speed, distance to objective, slow progress, etc. But during gale weather none of that seems to matter any more. What matters is hunkering down with the boat and crew as comfortable as possible.

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