2002

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Ocean Planet Report
Ocean Planet Around Alone Log
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
1251gmt
Pos: 48 02N, 10 25W Heading: 250T, @ 10-11kts.

Took it real easy yesterday and last night as I needed to recover physically. Feel better now, eating and getting strength back, but it will be a day or two before I’m 100%. Which I’ll need to be as the approaching low pressure system is a replay of the big low we had coming over on Leg 1. Only even more wind is predicted this time.

I’m going west in an attempt to go over the top of the low, which is a lot further but I should be able to make up a lot of the distance by going a lot faster than beating my brains out going between the low and Europe. Even if I lose some, I want to avoid any breakage this early in the Leg. I’ll have to be careful, since even though I should be able to stay off the wind, there will be a LOT of it.

Even though I’ve been trying to take it easy, there is always sail trimming and misc stuff to do, like killing all the darn flies that try to get a free ride to the Southern Hemisphere. About an hour ago we snagged an assembly of fishing stuff, consisting of three big fenders and a flagpole with lights, tied together with rope. It took me a half hour of messing around, finally sailing sideways and backwards to get the line on the surface so I could grab it and cut it. Glad that’s over!

Another complication is that my sat-c terminal (one of our required satellite email systems) is acting funny. I can receive but couldn’t send while logged onto the east Atlantic satellite, the one that should work the best here. So I logged onto the west Atlantic satellite and now I can send…..doesn’t make sense, hope I can figure it out.

Tomorrow should be lighter air, before getting blasted on Friday. So hopefully I can fix a few things like the working jib which blew open on the furler, resulting in a very frantic and exhausting takedown with it almost being lost in the water. I think the sail is fine, but I have to remember to roll it up tighter next time.

Later,
Bruce