Randall was Right

Randall was Right
Just as I was about to make my way back to Seaburban, Randall paused looked away and said “By Thanksgiving, you’ll be in it.” I wanted to ask what exactly he meant by that, but he was far away in that place where it was. It seemed selfish to ask and a minute or two later we went our separate ways.

Today, American Thanksgiving and it seems like I am truly “in it”. We are sailing as close to the wind as 25 knots and 8-10′ seas will allow. I am trying to keep Seaburbam from pounding herself to powder as the swell builds and the wind steadily increases. This may very well have been what Randall meant. When I see him again, I will ask!

I just cannot hang on to a course that is due south. There is no way I can point Sea urban that high into the wind and hop to make any progress at all. The choices are 1) Go onto starboard and head ExN or continue on port and head SSW. I need easting but I need to get South more so port tack it is.

The only consolation is that the earth is round (actually, an oblate spheroid but round is close enough) so the same 30 degrees of easting at the equator, roughly 1800 miles is half that at 60 degrees. So rather than try to make up some easting here at 5N, I can recover some in the westerlies below 35S and save some distance and windward work at the same time.

Grib data shows the swell subsiding in 2-3 days. The same grib data shows this to be an area of light and variable winds. All I know is that I am in it.

Follow my tracks in real-time:
https://bit.ly/svseaburban