23 December 2004, Tacking around Bahia de l’Ascencion
Weatherprognostics:
NE wind with a front coming and staying on top of us.
We tacked and tacked the whole day and made no progress to the South.
The wind was straight south, precisely the way we wanted to go and there
was no way we could overcome the current of 2 knots. During the night the
winds started to increase.
That tacking should not be taken light. We tack every 6 hours or so. So we
go for 20 miles and try it on the other side. It is for sure not like in a
dinghy-race. The only goal is to make miles to where the wind is blowing
from. We use our wind vane to steer and calculate when we finally tack. I
can tell you, it is no fun to see that you are doing 80 degrees to
windward. (90 degrees to windward would be precisely neutral, no progress
at all). Most of the time this is when the wind is blowing 25 to 30 knots
and the current is against the wind. You will get very nasty seas. You
survive but it is not comfortable. It is surviving.
Also there is a lot of noise when this happens, the boat pinches. Sometimes
there is a wave that takes away all the speed you got. Then you go again
slowly. (Nobody is at the tiller, this is all done by wind vane). Most
depressing is to see the GPS ‘course made good’ or something like that.
That you are going backwards. This, with all the noise, the waves, the
whole uncomfortable way of going makes you think you are doing something
fundamentally wrong. Nobody told me that this could happen??!! What am I
doing wrong?
You are doing nothing wrong, you just have bad luck with the combination of
‘type of boat’, ‘wind’, ‘current’ and more of those variables.
When it is the ‘surviving mood’, one thing is important. To save energy of
the crew. Don’t do anything. Just sleep, eat and check what is needed to
check. Then sleep again. You will need your energy for something later on.
Of course, a nice meal will enhance the mood of the crew much more then
whatever else. But save your energy for later. Too many errors are made
just because people were too tired. They fall overboard, make wrong
decisions, have bad equilibrium, are in a bad mood. Being tired is why most
accidents happen.
3th day out of Isla Mujeres, 24th of December 2004
Weatherprognostics:
The front stays on top of us for the coming days. Winds are said to be
from the NE but in reality they are from the way we want to go, meaning
from the South to SouthWest.
We tacked on the same spot as the two days before. Finally we decided to
enter Bahia de l’Ascencion to have a good rest. Why would we just tack and
tack without making any progress? We might as well drop the anchor and rest
a bit. It was Vivian that came with this idea. It just took me 2 days to
accept it. I believed the weather-prognosis, Vivian looked at our real
progress. I counter force with force, Vivian is more in using the force
that is there. A good combination, we look at all the different angles.
We caught a beautiful Dorada just before coming into the Baia de Ascencion.
We made a safe landfall around 14.00, including a nice fish for Xmas.
At anchor the wind started to increase and we dragged a bit. We re
anchored in a grassy spot and after I dove down to check the anchor I
decided to re anchor once more. We finally found a sandy spot to drop the
anchor. At night the winds were from the NW and the seas were relatively
choppy as we didn’t have much protection from the NW side.
I thought about leaving as the winds from the NW were ideal to our planned
course. I dismissed the idea, going to open waters when it is getting dark
and crossing the reefs, I didn’t have the guts for that. I thought it
better to be at anchor and have a good night sleep. Maybe I was kind of
lazy, after the anchor finally hold.
We had a wonderful dinner of the fish and a salad. More then enough. We
wondered what would have happened to Sirena and at times, out of pure
nostalgia I tried to make contact with Sirena, to no avail. We were
anchored sound and safe. We slept well.
| << | Second day after leaving Isla Mujeres to Guatemala | Bahia de l’Asencion, another day at anchor | >> |
