Weather report
One of the things I really wanted to know how it behaved in bad weather. Given its heritage, we had no problems as expected. But, I learned about the importance of securing everything before departure. Below the cover on the front deck that gives access to the anchor winch room. A pretty heavy piece of metal.
Well, the pictures below don’t show it (I’ll post some videos on YouTube.com soon) but when we hit that depression in the Channel, slamming got a new meaning. The front of the ship made vertical movements of at least 9 m. (27 ft.) and one of these, managed the cover below open by itself !! Against gravity. That’s a pretty serious acceleration…
Yet, none of these waves, in the order of 7+ meter really slowed us down. Nor would you hear the engine kind of slow. That 3.6 m. (12 ft.) prop just kept on turning at around 90 rpm. We did slow down to about 8.5 knots to make it more comfortable.
This was NOT a time to walk around on deck. Quite difficult, certainly dangerous. Sleeping was another story. Not easy. So after 24 hours we were glad it was over. Still a lot of swell but no more slamming.
And once we made it to Horta on Faial, the Azores, we forgot about that weather pretty fast. We picked up a new crew member and got ready for the next stretch. Here in world famous (among yachters crossing the Atlantic) ‘Peter’s Place’.
