Yesterday afternoon’s breeze built to a steady 25+kts as a front approached. The wind stayed with them through the night, with waves increasing in height and frequency.
Last night, they started to drift northward (see track on picture) because they only had a tiny bit of the genoa out and couldn’t maintain a course with the wind at 90 degrees to the boat, especially with both wind and waves from the south. At midnight they put up the storm jib (a small sail towards the front of the boat designed for heavy weather) and a bit of mainsail and were able to return to course.
This evening Alex reported that all’s well and he and Cheryl took down the storm jib. The winds are forecast to moderate over the next 24 hrs and by Wednesday will be down to less than 10 kts and they’ll be back to motoring. Until the next front approaches…
