Fighting For Every Inch

At Sea
33 77.35 N 077 34.23 W

Soon after posting yesterday's blog, the wind changed. It was as if Murphy didn't like me bragging about how nice it was.

I took down the mainsail. I took down the stay sail. I reefed the jib 50%. That seemed to have things under control. That is until I went to bed at 2000 leaving Libby at the helm. A front passed and shifted the wind 45 degrees in direction, and increased the speed to 25 knots. We were still OK with that wind. It was very bumpy and wet, but we made progress.

Then, at 0700 we approached the East end of Frying Pan shoals. As soon as we rounded the shoal we could alter course 10 degrees to port and make the 80 mile final run to Beaufort. Just then, at the worst possible time, the wind shifted another 80 degrees. Now is was blowing directly from the direction to Beaufort. Oh no! That's the worst possible direction.

I tried to sail with this new wind for 4 hours. It was no good. We were heading for Iceland, not Beaufort, NC. If we came about to starboard tack, it would carry us back toward Frying Pan Shoals. That would be a big mistake. Right now the sails are down and we are motoring at 3 knots toward Beaufort,NC. IT will take us 30 hours if nothing changes.

I spend much of my watch time at night contemplating fatigue and how it affects my judgment. I found myself thinking of comfortable safe anchorages, and a warm bed. I began to doubt if we are meant to be offshore sailors. More things are breaking with the pounding the boat it taking. The radar reflector line broke and the reflector fell on deck. Several things began to wear out on the Monitor, jeopardizing the only self steering we can use out here. My decision to continue on last night rather than putting in to land was a bad one. It is understandable that all crewmen will feel some euphoria in good weather and depression in bad weather. The question is how much mood swing is too much?