Knocking off the miles, as the forecast said, it would knock us off our route. We had put nearly 40 miles to east in the bank to prepare for being knocked off course. Well that was not enough son!
I have been watching a fishing fleet of 9 or 10 boats, that have been canvasing across our path. Mornings check and they were all traveling west, and just far enough west that with our wind shift we could still stay east of them. All good, decent sailing. That 40 miles to the east.. was quickly depleted as we were being forced to sail a bit west of north. No worries the wind should shift and bring us back the other direction later.
I thought the shortest distance between 2 points was a straight line, but we get to do “S” turns, just to keep it interesting.
Mid after noon, checked up on my fishing fleet.. Damn, if they didn’t do a 180 degree turn, now all 9 of them are crossing our path over the course of 30 miles, or some 5-6 hours of dodging 30 meter long fishing boats towing lines? nets? dunno, but what you gonna do, just aim for them.. they’ll be gone when you get there, at least that’s the way race cars do it.
And then the sunsets before crossing our first targets path, just to add to the fun. In the dark we dance!
Then I develop a bad case of acne/pimples/zits all over my screen. I ran to get the clearasil cream, but the rubbing it on the radar screen just made them blurry. As soon as one would go by, another would appear.. So begins the night of dodge squall and dodge fishing fleet, all at the same time. Why does this always happen before a big dance?
The first squall no problems, we were able to get to the ‘good’ side to go around, its east side. The second one, not so lucky.. took us another 5 miles west with its winds on the ‘bad side’. We have now lost the orginal 40 miles to the east and now another 40 miles to the west of where we want to go. Doh! While deciding how to proceed, lower sails and wake Christine up when it clears up, or take sails down and motor for a bit and wake her to raise the sails. Just then the radar alarm went off again, with another big squall dead ahead. Drop sails, and see how this plays out.
Played out well, next squall brought 34kts of driving rain, and just as we were arriving to the dance The first of the fishing fleet was 4 miles off our starboard, hidden in the driving rain, 8 more to go.
Egg Plant Parmesan from our passage meal collection.
240 miles to go, was going to be a 2 more sleeps till finish kinda pace, but with the current acne issue, might be 3 sleeps, as we will want to arrive in the daylight.. It’s all good.
All good on board if not a bit soggy.. It’ll dry tho…
Off to find more acne medicine, aka Clearasil.
