Tuesday 04 August #1

Tuesday 04 August
A Teaser
One of the rules is to never enter a harbour at night. At 02:00 this morning the Faial landfall waypoint was 197nm away. If we arrive at the waypoint at 18:00 it will still take as long as two hours to get into the harbour, which will be dark. So I make the latest we can get to the waypoint is 18:00. To get there at 18:00 our speed needs to be: 197nm/40 hours=5.0 knots. If we can not average 5.0 knots for the next 1.5 days we will need to arrive Thursday morning, or 48 hours from 02:00. 197nm/48hours=4.0knots. To arrive in daylight we either need to average less than 4.0 knots or more than 5.0 knots. Of course we could go 4.5 knots, arrive early, and stop for 4 hours. Stopping a sailboat is not simple. If you drop all sails you don't really stop. The wind will continue to blow you in some direction. And Pico Channel has reversing tidal currents of 2.0 knots. Over four hours you can get into the entirely wrong place. And it is uncomfortable sitting still on the ocean. When sailing, the force on the sails dampens the motion. Sitting still in light wind can be very rolly.
Right now, at 03:00, we are sailing about 5.5kts. Everything depends on the wind not fading away, and the extra speed we get when the mainsail is deployed at sunrise.
Reef Early
Bill Doar
s/v Advent II