Winds blowing strong on the Roaring 40’s.
A weather change leaving the Polar Front behind.
Given a good barometer and eyes, a sea forecaster has all the instruments he or she requires. Of all the weather systems there are variations and combinations, but whatever these may be, and however complicated, these portents remain always constant. The changing sky, the fluctuating glass, the signs and beacons which nature plants in the heavens - these are always there in a more or less marked degree. Out at sea there is never a lack of indication of what tricks nature has in her store.
- Stephen Brennan (Editor). The Little Book of Sailing Wisdom
Through advances made in maritime technology and forecasting the weather, nowadays we count with much more than a barometer and a thermometer to predict what’s to come and how to face it. Never loosing sight of the flag up the top of the main mast, telling us about the wind direction, those old but still useful instruments are always there too, next to the wheelhouse and Captains and Officers rely on them as well as on the modern computer models for routing their trips.
And today a joint review of all the readings we can get, tells us about the gradual drop on the barometric pressure, the noticeable rise on both air and surface water temperature. The wind slowly backing from a northerly to more of a northwesterly and its stronger force and gusts.
We ride the north side of one of the many Low Pressure Systems that constantly sweep over, one after the other, along the open ocean on the Roaring 40’s and Furious 50’s. The prevision shows that it will pass soon, and after a calmer period, of course another one will follow.
The ship’s good average speed, making 174nm in the last 24 hours, sure has been affected too not just by the fair strong winds but also by finding herself in different parts of the swirls and eddies that characterise these waters, on the northern edge of the West Wind Drift or Circumpolar Current. Here some water diverts to the middle of the south Atlantic from a flow that runs clockwise around Antarctica.
With an ambient temperature of about 10ºC, and the water at over 9ºC we clearly have left the cold areas where we have been sailing since the trip began now a month ago.
Warmer although under unstable weather conditions. The sunny day we enjoyed yesterday today has become a grey, cloudy and wet journey, under strong gusty winds and growing seas.
Now they blow less, set more sail, now they howl again, time to strike it. And which one is the sail we are talking about, when the rig is already set up for strong winds? one of Europa’s most powerful sails, the Outer Jib. Also not the easiest one to deal with when the vessel thunders close hauled.
When it is the moment to douse it and to avoid the sail to go mad, first the helm puts the vessel off. As the wind comes more to the aft it is time to pull the downhaul while a hand throw the turns of the line off the pin and let the halyard free. One or two jump onto the bowsprit, get the flapping sail under control, the ship then can come up to the wind again.
It is late at night, with the seas getting over the bulwarks on the lee side, when we consider to reduce a bit more sail, time to call hands for gearing up first, then to join on deck and pull on the main topsail downhaul and bunts. Yard comes down, sail is packed away, she kicks and heels a bit less for a slightly more comfortable ride.