After motoring through a calm night set sail around noon today.
A north east breeze sprang up and we got the ship under sail slowly to the south. Slowing down is exactly what we want to do at this time as a low pressure system is deepening over this area and we want to give it some time to head off to the north east, putting some distance between us and the strongest of the winds forecast with this system.
As the afternoon wore on we could actually see the centre of the depression pass ahead of us, to the south came an area of clear skies, when this reached us the barometer steadied out and as the blue sky passed on ahead of us the wind slowly backed to the north then northwest and the ship was brought back up on course toward France.
As many of the old sailing ship books say, when the barometer has finished dropping and steadied out, watch for a slight rise, then the wind will come. As the low moved out on ahead of us the barometer rose and the wind jumped up to Force 7 from the west, good for us, as the ship is now speeding along at better than 7 kts under Topsails and the Foresail to the ENE. In anticipation of the seas building overnight the crew spent most of the afternoon rigging heavy weather gear and making the ship well stowed down. This strong westerly flow is forecast to last a few days, a good push along for us, and also a good chance for large seas to build.
The water has warmed up during the day making the wind not as bitter cold as it has been the previous nights. With the ship snug down the watches stand by for anything the ship might need, but the hope is all we will have to do is hold on to the helm, keep to the routine and let the ship ride.
SHIP’S WORK: Down rig and begin serving the Fish Tackle, Set up Main Topmast Shrouds, Stow remaining mooring lines below, Herringbone patch in the Spanker, set up grab lines, nets, double gripe boats and double gasket light sails
FROM: Lunenburg, NS, Canada
TOWARDS: La Rochelle, France
TIME ZONE: ZD+2
NOON POSITION: 42°46.7’N / 046°43.9’W
DAYS RUN: 155nm
PASSAGE LOG: 813nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 1968nm
COURSE AND SPEED: ESE, 3kts
WIND: NE, Force 3
WEATHER: Overcast, air temp: 6°C, water temp: 10°C
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: 2 to 3 ft, NE
SAILS SET: Topsails, Foresail Inner Jib, Fore & Main Topmast Staysails, Mizzen Staysail