Long day. Was on the foredeck (now don’t recall why) when I noted on the #2 genoa unusual chafe to the webbing that secures the clew ring to the clew of the sail. Closer inspection showed that of the four straps around the ring, the top two had worn through and the bottom one was a third gone.
Spent the remainder of the day switching that sail out for the spare in the anchor locker. The webbing is monstrously strong ...
It’s the kind of day you cancel appointments for. You don’t take calls. You pay attention.
We rode the low’s northwesterly phase overnight; brisk winds to 25. I had the twins poled out with a couple tucks in each and Monte set to keep wind dead aft.
The westerly phase filled in before noon and brought with it waves of squalls to blot out the otherwise blue sky. Winds increased to 25 and 30 with 35 in the squalls common. ...
A dynamic weather day. Rain and wind changes. Drizzle and wind changes. A huge trough passes over, with wind changes. Now it’s clear with cloud on the horizon. Hard to keep up. Have done complete sail changes three times and have been adjusting sail all day. At least that’s the way it seems.
Fast time east. So that’s good.
I’ve abandoned the idea of going below the coming high pressure area two days hence. Realistically, it would have required a dip all the way to 50S, a latitude I’m not ...
Another steady night of wind aft but without stars. I woke often to make sure it continued to blow from the WNW, as the forecast called for a northerly shift which would have required deck work, but none came. I got a solid eight hours sleep. Second night of that.
I’m edging S a bit in an attempt to get below a high (a blob of calm) that will settle in here in two days, and from that point ...
One squall, epic in size and darkness of hue and pouring a Niagara of rain, a squall that had been on the approach all afternoon, a squall that looked to climb up the taffrail and for which I put on foul weather gear and cleared sheets of their coils … was too late!
Ha ha ha ha, laugh I as the sun sets. And as stars begin to wink on, the squall fizzles and spits and ...
Good miles today, but I’ve been having a tough time getting the full giddy-up out of Mo due to squalls.
Ran all night with a triple reefed main and double reefed jib, very conservative in 25 knots from the WSW, and was still up and on deck three times to ease sheets and help Monte get back on course when a troll passed through.
Easy day. We’re sliding into a high pressure system, and so winds are lightening.
It’s been a slow week for miles, but today we finally had an average day of 146 miles noon-to-noon. That ties our best day this last seven.
But we’re rolling now, and Mo feels fast again, except for the few hours before dawn when I should have flown more sail but opted for sleep. Deserved sleep, as we spent the night being t-boned by one squall after the other, and I was frequently on deck taming the twin headsails ...
First, rain came in after I’d bagged the drogue and got us underway, bringing with it a shifting wind the likes of which I’ve never seen. From 11 knots to 35 knots and anywhere from 295 degrees to 239 degrees. The poles went up and then came down. The working jib went free and full and then reefed and then full again; then gybed and then… And all the while, Mo heaved ...
Special treat for everyone. With a ton of shenanigans we’ve figured out how to allow Randall to be interviewed at sea. Today’s show is from fellow sailor and circumnavigator Matt Rutherford.
As it turns out, I was over-cautious with this third low.
I deployed the SHARK drogue again at 4pm and then slept until 10pm, when weather started to come on. I then made a cup of tea, dressed in foulies, and sat up with the low until 3am, well after the forecast called for it to peak. Winds never got much above 30-35, and they were more in the high 20s. All good sailing wind, except for the heavy, lunging ...
Randall Reeves grew up reading about and dreaming of the sea. He learned to sail on the rivers of central California and interviewed world-famous solo sailor, Bernard Moitessier, for his college radio station, an event that changed his life. Randall’s blue-water sailing began in 2006 when he crewed on a 40-foot boat for a 26-day, 3,000-mile passage from Hawaii to British Columbia where “everything went gloriously wrong.” He was hooked. In 2010, Randall departed San Francisco for a two-year, 12,000-mile solo-loop of the Pacific in a 30-foot sailboat. Randall crewed the Northwest Passage in 2014, a grueling 65 days over an ice-strewn 5,000-mile course aboard one of only seven boats to complete the Arctic run that year. Randall’s preparations in 2016 have included long passages aboard his new Figure 8 boat from Kodiak, Alaska to Hawaii and back to his home in San Francisco, a total of 7,000 miles. Randall is a licensed Master of vessels to 50 Gross Tons
