We’ve decided to begin our twelve step patience, self improvement program this morning. The nice breeze died and backed around to the East, right on the nose. We’re as close hauled into the wind as Escape Velocity can get and still move forward and that’s only 3.5-4 kts. We’re actually heading more toward Bermuda! Maybe we should’ve laid in more food.
By noon we’d fallen off the wagon, burning diesel like the Queen Mary…well not really, but we decided to start one engine and motor-sail in something closer to an Easterly direction. That didn’t take long, I feel like the vulture on a limb talking to his buddy and says,” patience hell I’m going to kill something.” We’re averaging only 4kts. With just one engine and the sails up bashing into waves and current, and all I can think of is drop the rags, startup the Str’b engine too and point her ninety degrees East and power up to 7-8 kts. Lets get East, out to 66 degrees West, so we can head South.
The single engine theory holds that running the second engine doubles the fuel consumption, I can attest to that, but only adds a few extra knots to your speed, yes but I still want to kill something! EV actually has a spare 50gal. fuel tank very far forward in the starboard hull but we’ve never used it, it leaked at one time, supposedly repaired and we’ve been cautioned not to use it but 50 extra gals. sounds pretty good right now.
Bear in mind that we are still supposed to be sailing along in a perfectly reasonable 10-15 kts. of S-SE breeze!
As we settle into the familiar routines of passagemaking, watch following watch, grabbing a bite when you can, scanning the horizon every fifteen minutes or so, a quick look at the rig and instruments, especially AIS, maybe radar too, But I never fail to stick my head out over the side decks , listen for the whoosh of the large Atlantic swells passing beneath our twin sterns, and marvel at the amount of stars there are out here in the middle of nowhere. It is amazing!