We would end up sailing on Christmas Eve, but it looked like we would be arriving around sunrise on Christmas, so we figured we would still have plenty of time to exchange gifts and have the big meal.
Ah, forecasts… The further you get from the equator, the less reliable they become. By the morning of our departure, our twelve hours of strong winds had been amended to six, plus four of light winds. By the time we left, it was four of light tailwinds, four of light headwinds, and a whole lot of nuttin’. Groan. It was still our best option though, so off we went.
We started with the headwinds. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t helping out sunrise arrival any. They ran out completely right before Maryanne handed Begonia over to me. I reluctantly started an engine, just to keep us moving until the tailwinds arrived. Four hours later, I was still waiting. The winds were frustratingly late!
Half an hour after that, we did finally get enough for me to switch back to sail. We were only going a knot, but at least we were moving. It picked up until we were able to make a respectable entrance to the bay going fast and flying the spinnaker. It was only nine hours after sunrise.
Beautiful skies on our passage to Eden
It was a good thing the days are longer down here. We still had almost six hours of daylight left. We decided that the naps we were both craving would screw our rhythms up even worse, so we made some coffee and got on with salvaging the rest of the holiday. We made it until dark, but just. The food coma and a little bit of wine put us out cold.
The Christmas period - at anchor; not a bad place to be safely tucked away
No comments:
Post a Comment