The Long Port Tack
Heading south through the doldrums towards Cape Verde, Clouds’ instructions were simple: “around 5 degrees north the breeze will build from the SSW and back slowly round to the SE. When it does, tack over onto port and you’re away.”
“Onto port and you’re away.” Sounded so straightforward: tack over, get into the trades and sit back, reach for sunglasses and daquiris as the heat engine of the tropics takes over. In reality we have been almost hard on the breeze for 10 days. The trades have been boisterous and difficult with days of squalls, winds over 35 kts, nasty almost vindictive seas and never a cocktail to be seen.
Mostly we’ve flown a reefed mainsail and staysail, occasionally unfurling the genoa, all the time working to make things less uncomfortable, nevertheless we have been heeled 20 degrees to starboard for pretty much ten days.
Kialoa II is a long slender vessel with a beam of only 4.6m despite a length of 23m. An excellent shape for slicing through waves, it does mean a different aspect when powering to windward. That angle of heel, day in day out, means thinking through even the simplest daily activity before attempting it.
What works? The gimballed galley table. Decent meals would seldom make it off the cooker, into bowls and thence to hungry crew without it. Even better, the coffee machine ON the gimballed table. The smell of coffee wafting through the saloon cheering the darkest watch.
Most problematic? The aft head toilet seat. The aft head is aligned fore and aft. Sitting down (and let me say every action there is a sit down – aiming when standing having a pee is at best a lottery) means you are facing aft, tilted over at 20 degrees, bouncing. No toilet seat nor hinge should have to take that amount of stress.
Most surprising? After 10 days, the wind has dropped to 15-20 kts, angle of heel to 15 degrees, and we feel like we are on a cruise liner: fuller cups of tea, BBC World Service on the wireless, less mental preparation needed to visit the head. Life is good.
Paddy
