La Vagabonde's crossing

[Cherod]

Just wait for “ Vag , the movie “

[Sailjl]

Thanks

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Cherod

i noticed that myself ,, with the baby in its sling ( whatever it is called ) i thot that quite significant ,,,, i was going to mention it but i thot everyone would consider it trivia !!!
i see , ( as from 12 gmt ) they are now more easting , be daylight with them now

I seem to recall them stating that upon acquiring the cat they were told that if brute force was ever going to be needed it would be during docking and undocking and that it would be advisable for Elyana to learn to be helmsperson—a switch from their routing on the Beneteau. So she did.

[Breaking Waves]

Boat speed back up and have worked their way back into some breeze, very nice sailing, but still heading northerly - which this mornings routing said they should do for at least 5 more hours



GFS just updated, so I will take a quick peek at that, see if anything has changed

[Terje Vigen]

Latest update, at 1750 GMT 23 Nov, shows our friends heading NNE with a boat speed of 8.5 knots. Reaching in 12 knots wind on the port beam, according to PredictWind.
Nikki Henderson indicates on her latest Facebook posting that she's flying the Code0:

Day 11

We’ve just had our first +200NM day. It brought its fair share of excitement.

After surfing all night downwind between 10 - 20 knots (so fun!) we received our stark reminder to pace ourselves. We had been awaiting a wind shift from south westerly winds to north westerly - and at breakfast the shift arrived together with an ominous black cloud. It was - as we said afterwards - what most sailors would call the stuff of nightmares: a 60 degree wind shift, an increase from 20-45 knots and lashing rain. Thankfully it was in the day, so we spotted it and - whilst we didn’t expect quite that much wind -
I had at least managed to get my gear on in time. Riley and Elayna were not so lucky!

Maybe the most striking thing for me during our day of wind shifts and gusts and scary clouds - was how baby Lenny just stayed so calm - sitting in his high chair, or rolling around the couch playing with whatever objects he can find ... sun cream stick, the kill-cord to the dinghy, and his new discovery - the pot of pens, and the pink highlighter ... yes I can imagine you all know how that one went!

We have slowed a little now - so time to pop up the code 0. Hopefully we get a bit of north in before the wind shifts back to the south west today to maintain slightly more pressure.

Planning our half way party for a few days time ... cookies on the agenda. Any suggestions??

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

if brute force was ever going to be needed it would be during docking and undocking and that it would be advisable for Elyana to learn to be helmsperson. So she did.

Excellent advice - it usually is best if the wife does the docking helm work and the guy does the jumping and line throwing and pushing . . . just makes sense . . . but a lot of couples don't manage to make that transition.

My wife was an awesome sea person, very skilled, much much better at watchkeeping at 0-dark hundred than I was. My only real skill is that I get stronger and more alert the tougher the going is. I really wake up in a storm or emergency and that's about the only time I operate at my full speed/capability . . . . so she basically covered for me all the rest of the time

[Cherod]

Originally Posted by Terje Vigen

Latest update, at 1750 GMT 23 Nov, shows our friends heading NNE with a boat speed of 8.5 knots. Reaching in 12 knots wind on the port beam, according to PredictWind.
Nikki Henderson indicates on her latest Facebook posting that she's flying the Code0:

thanks for posting that

surfing at that speed in the dark must be hard work , i have done 15 but in the daylight , that was full on concentration !! seems they are having a fun time for now , glad to see that. seems elayna is on deck ,, maybe she is on the wheel while the others are doing the work . Is that up to 2 1/2 crew or 3 now , and still 2 down below for other duties .

[Breaking Waves]

latest gfs run, not much changed short term. Two days faster to Lisbon (Dec 4th eta) but I would not pay any attention to forecast changes that far out.

Latest routing suggesting heading on NNE course for 5 more hours,
then taking a jog due east due to a small frontal band from the low above,
and just riding the winds in the low ENE until they fall off the back on the 25th
a brief period of light winds in the ridge between lows
and then pick up winds from the next low with some strongish winds in frontal band

This is a picture from 25th just as they are falling off back of current low (black X's shows boat position on current and this AM's routings at time of this weather pic) you can see the light air ridge and then the next low coming up behind (all the weather is moving E faster than they are)



They can sail a bit further south than this without too much cost in speed - it is slower but not too much. I am curious if they will have a discussion about whether to cross 40N - it could be a psychological line, but perhaps also it will mean nothing, just another latitude.

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by Cherod

surfing at that speed in the dark must be hard work . . . . seems elayna is on deck ,, maybe she is on the wheel while the others are doing the work .

Do we know . . . is someone steering, or is it basically all autopilot? I would have guessed 98% autopilot, including at 12kts if the wind is at all steady - would grab the wheel only in those big squally shifting conditions.

[Cherod]

Originally Posted by Breaking Waves

Do we know . . . is someone steering, or is it basically all autopilot? I would have guessed 98% autopilot, including at 12kts if the wind is at all steady - would grab the wheel only in those big squally shifting conditions.

well i certainly dont know what they do , their boat is bigger and better than mine ,, ( 36 ft cat , also " light weight performance orientated " ) ,, i didnt mean steering all the time but for sail changes , deck work etc i would have thot head to the wind and direction changes would be better by hand , mine certainly is , also surfing is constant direction changes and mostly pro active , my auto pilot has trouble keeping up let alone thinking ahead , tbh i would not like to be surfing in the dark on or off autopilot ,, but i aint Nikki or Riley and my hat is off to them. !! .
PS , also when surfing down the wave i dont like to go straight down and into the back of the wave when of follows throo , i like to peel off a little and ride the wave for as long as possible it also prevents the bows from burying, always a bit scary ,i can imagine horrible in the dark , my autohelm can not deal with that .
apologies if i am going off topic

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Cherod

well i certainly dont know what they do , their boat is bigger and better than mine ,, ( 36 ft cat , also " light weight performance orientated " ) ,, i didnt mean steering all the time but for sail changes , deck work etc i would have thot head to the wind and direction changes would be better by hand , mine certainly is , also surfing is constant direction changes and mostly pro active , my auto pilot has trouble keeping up let alone thinking ahead , tbh i would not like to be surfing in the dark on or off autopilot ,, but i aint Nikki or Riley and my hat is off to them. !! .
PS , also when surfing down the wave i dont like to go straight down and into the back of the wave when of follows throo , i like to peel off a little and ride the wave for as long as possible it also prevents the bows from burying, always a bit scary ,i can imagine horrible in the dark , my autohelm can not deal with that .
apologies if i am going off topic

You'd typically use windvane mode on the autopilot for these types of things. It usually reacts quicker and allows additional hands to do stuff besides steering.

[Cherod]

i see on predict ( recent ) they are just a kick in the pants off that northerly low so should get some good easting soon

[Cherod]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

You'd typically use windvane mode on the autopilot for these types of things. It usually reacts quicker and allows additional hands to do stuff besides steering.

windvane on a multihull is very rare, certainly not on mine unfortunatly , mine is electric only , and i dont think Vagy has one either ,, ( i may be wrong , as i dont watch it much i dont know )
sorry , i may have missread your post ,,, do you mean a windvane mode on your electric auto ,, sorry , i did not know there was such a thing ,, not on mine ..

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Cherod

windvane on a multihull is very rare, certainly not on mine unfortunatly , mine is electric only , and i dont think Vagy has one either ,, ( i may be wrong , as i dont watch it much i dont know )
sorry , i may have missread your post ,,, do you mean a windvane mode on your electric auto ,, sorry , i did not know there was such a thing ,, not on mine ..

Most modern autopilots integrated with a wind sensor can steer to a wind heading instead of magnetic. You set the wind angle and it just keeps it pointed that way. Great for dropping the mainsail, but becomes really important when sailing fast downwind.

Matt

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by Cherod

do you mean a windvane mode on your electric auto .

yes, exactly, that's what is usually used. When running set it to say 140 degrees TWA and let it go

When upwind set it to AWA, perhaps 30 and again away you go.

You do ofc need to watch that you don't have persistent winds shifts and are sailing the wrong way.