We cast off on time yesterday! A sea breeze was blowing as we hoisted the reefed mainsail and made our way towards the pass. We did a bit of a test sail and unfurled the headsail in the protected waters of the bay before heading out to the open sea. But as we reached open water, things were looking a bit "spicy," so we put in the second reef.
We made good time heading west for a few hours at 8-10 knots, and, of course, I fell into my usual trap of calculating our arrival time (never a good idea!). Gradually, the wind started to increase and shift further east. Keeping our angle to the wind meant we were steadily heading further south, and as the wind started to pick up so we slowly started to furl the headsail as we went.
By around 4 pm, the sky had darkened considerably, looking particularly ominous to the south. With the wind starting to gust to over 30 knots, we put in the third reef and gybed. With almost perfect timing, the wind eased right off, came around to the north, and then later started to fill in and come around to the east. The GRIB files are forecasting gusts of up to 40 knots and torrential rain south of our position over the next few days. Plus, the AIS showed several long-liners in the area, so we maintained our NW heading, sailing as far off the wind as I felt comfortable with.
Overnight, we encountered more long-liners, along with squalls and downpours – thankfully not all at the same time! We gybed again just before sunrise and are currently on a good heading, even if we are not going as fast as I would like. We will see what daylight brings in about 2 hours and hopefully shake out the third reef.
