Windhorse Sailing

Day: 6
Position: 43.10 South, 63.37 West
Airtemp: 40F
Daylight: 8.6hrs
Heading: SW
Weather: Clear, wind W 10-15knots
Seas: 8ft southerly swell

I am a day late with this log. I have a good reason. The last 36 hours have been pretty tough. The last two nights we got tossed around pretty good and it was never a good idea to pull out the computer. The good news is we are well fed, well clothed, and well rested. The bad news is we haven’t made much ground. First - the good news. The sun is shining. The winds are from the west and we are moving at 7 knots in the general direction of our next waypoint, Puerto Deseado. We are covered by a large High-pressure system that is tracking NE and should now provide favorable winds. I won’t make any predictions, but I am as ever optimistic.

Now - the bad news. We had planned to get to an anchorage before a low-pressure system came up the coast bringing strong cold winds from the south. As you recall, “the race was on.” Well we lost. The high-pressure system (turning counter clockwise) over Tierra Del Fuego moved east towards us and Created a crunch zone with the low over us (turning clockwise). This crunch zone augured 20ft seas from the south and 35 knot winds from the SSW and gusts of 45 knots. We prepared the parachute sea anchor, but never used it. We prepared to hove to, but we never did. Instead we tacked back and forth under a deeply reefed main, storm jib, and only about 20 square feet of headsail. We didn’t make much ground to the south, but we didn’t give up valuable miles and we worked our way closer to land and safe harbor. Shangri-La made our decision for us by riding so smoothly. With the wind vane set to keep us close hauled on the wind and a conservative sail plan She kept our bow into the waves and our rail out of the water, relatively, most of the time. Gavin and I traded two-hour shifts throughout the night keeping an eye on things. Minor sail adjustments were needed here and there, but overall allowed us good rest in our off time.

With the rising sun this morning the winds shifted around and settled down as if granting permission to proceed. Now we can relax and take care of things like going to the bathroom and brushing our teeth, washing dishes; things made dangerous by a pitching boat in heavy seas. With these things down we can enjoy the ride. We’ll keep an eye out for an Albatross, good luck to mariners, or the Elephant seals that our guidebooks say are migrating north. I’ll write this log and get some weather reports in preparation for the next low certain to come our way.