Last night was sporty as we thrashed along with two reefs in the main with wind gusts to the low 20s. The wind really picked up around dusk and with a second reef in the main the boat settled down, mostly.
I tend to sail conservatively when on passage as I do not want to put excessive stress on boat and crew. To that end I subscribe to “reef early and often” and have the boat set up so that the process goes quickly.
The process of reefing goes like this…
The first step is to release the boom vang so that the end of the boom goes up which takes pressure off the back of the sail, the leach.
I adjust the autopilot to head up more into the wind, generally 30 to 40 degrees. This gets the sail luffing as the pressure of the wind is less. Then it comes down smoothly which makes it easier to tension the luff (front) and pull in the leech (back) as we reduce sail area.
The main halyard is marked with a single black mark at first reef, two for the second and three for the third so all I need to do is to drop it until the appropriate mark on the halyard lines up with the line break/clutch. This sets the head of the sail up properly so I can pull the foot down and secure the luff, front, and the leech, back.
Next, I hand pull in the luff reef line in as much as I can and then use the winch to pull in the last foot so that the bottom of the sail is the right height off of the boom. Again, that line is marked and while I generally know when it is properly tensioned I take a look to be sure that it looks right without any odd wrinkles in the sail indicating stress on the fabric.
I pull in the leech, the back of the sail, as much as I can by hand and then bring it in the last few feet with the winch. The loads on this line are alarming and I am always worried that something is going to break.
As with all heavily loaded lines great care is needed and I can generally hear when the electric winches are overloaded, something that is not obvious to someone who is not intimate with the boat.
I recall the first time I furled the big code zero, when I was new to the boat, accidentally pulling on the wrong line with the power winch and ripping the line right out of the furling drum. At the time I was not tuned to the sounds of the winch when it has too much load to be safe. I learned my lesson.
Finally, I take the slack out of the remaining reefing lines to be sure that they do not get tangled, wrap around the end of the boom or catch on something. Left hanging and they can catch on something like the hatches in the dodger and rip it off, which has happened twice.
Once all lines are secure and everything is properly set I pull the vang back down to a position so the boom is roughly parallel with the deck.
And finally, bring the boat back down to the prior course.
All of this takes about ten minutes and can be done easily in the dark with a red headlamp. I generally do not let crew do this as there are just too many opportunities to break stuff and I would rather be the one that messes up if things go badly.
It took a lot of practice to get everything set up in a way that makes the process smooth. The right sort of slippery reefing lines, marking the lines so I know when they are in the right place and other more subtle issues like how the winch sounds under load took some experience to get right.
The reefing setup was not quite right when I purchased the boat and it was not until I had a rigger look at it that I was able to get it to a point where I felt that the process would reliably go smoothly.
The forecast predicts that we will hit stronger winds over the next 12 hours, increasing to the low to mid 20s with gusts up to 30kts. That is a lot of wind but the good news is that these peak winds are expected to be during daylight hours and should subside largely before it gets dark.
Once the winds get lighter, we will be in prime orca “play area” so that should be fun too.
As slow as the first half of the run was, the second is certainly faster and sometimes downright sporty but overall, it has been a reasonable passage.
Having said that, I would be lying if I said that I will be sad to see my voyage from Trinidad to Spain come to an end. I have had more than enough sailing for now having been underway for two and a half months which is more than enough for one season.
But as they say, “you have to do what you have to do” and getting Pandora to the Med was necessary to allow us to do some exploration over the next few years.
After so much advance planning and so many days at sea since Trinidad, it is a bit surreal to realize that, if all goes well, in perhaps 36 hours my first transatlantic voyage will be completed.
With the looming orca “issues” ahead of us tomorrow, I do not know if I will take time to do another post but for sure, once we make landfall, hopefully late on Wednesday, there will be more to tell and I am hoping that my next post will not be all about orcas.
A lot has gone into making this trip beginning more than ten years ago when an offhand comment by my dad “Bob, wouldn’t it be great to take Pandora through the Strait of Gibraltar?” planted the seed.
Of course, that is not all of it but making my way past the “rock” will cap off a number journeys that have brought me here not the least of which was starting this blog more than 15 years and 1,200 posts ago which I started to share our journeys with Dad and Mom.
And I continue to type away in my “office” aboard Pandora.
If you are curious about how my blog came to be, check out “why I keep this blog” at the top of this page. It has been a long journey and perhaps, in some ways, it is just getting started.
For now, the seas seem to be settling down but I have no illusion that it is going to be smooth sailing for the next 24 hours with winds piping up between us and the Strait of Gibraltar.
Here is to the last mile or at least the last 36 hours.
Wish me luck.