Heading East
After a tiring day spent downloading and analyzing weather info, a discussion with Herb convinced me that the prudent thing to do is to head west away from the gale zone rather than try to sail it in an easterly direction. So I am plodding west overnight and will review the situation in the morning. The long and the short of it is that I think there will be gale force winds Sunday night and Monday east of 16W and it doesn’t not make sense to sail in a gale onto the continental shelf where the seabed
shallows abruptly from 2000m to less than 200m.
I am very pleased that ‘Fai Terra’ has taken the same attitude. As a fully crewed boat they could have proceeded but for me it only takes a simple gear failure in a gale to lead to exhaustion which is the single-hander’s chief enemy. My arrival in Plymouth will be delayed until at least Thursday and probably Friday but but least I will be safe and the boat should be fit to continue her onward voyage.
West of 16N by Sunday morning I should get significantly lighter winds and be able to heave-to until things have calmed down in the east.
After 24hrs of worry, it is a great relief to have made a decision. I think I’ll cook a curry tomorrow!