Energy Wanted

We have been plagued the last few days with light winds, or no wind at all. We have also had swells from more than one direction at the same time, emanating from storms to our north. This situation actually takes more energy from us than a situation with a lot of wind. (Under conditions of fresh to strong winds, we can fly along ticking off miles with only minor adjustments to sheets or the helm or the neutral position of the vane, as long as our sailplan is balanced and appropriate for the conditions.)

When winds are light, there is so little energy, every deviation from the optimal point of sail, every disturbance of the sails - furling or unfurling, sheeting in or out - or every roll with swell disturbs our precarious sailing equilibrium and Carina's forward momentum is diminished. The fluid motion of the boat is suddenly interrupted and she bucks a bit and dumps wind from the sails, flogging the sheets and chafing the cloth. Desperate to continue to move forward, even if at a pace slower than you can walk, we are more attentive than we would be during watches when winds are stronger and the windvane and Carina are working together smoothly. Life seems in slow motion and we must attend to our self steering almost constantly. Thus, we have little time for ourselves and feel less energetic as the days fly by ever so slowly.

At 8/7/2016 and 5:45 UTC (GMT) our position was: 00°07.55'S / 144°24.31'E.
We were traveling 214T degrees true at 2.7 knots.





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