Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Storm preparations

This is the forth time Rob and I have sailed down the West Coast in Coppelia. The first 2 trips in 2011 (RNI) and 2012 (RNZ) were rough, terrible in fact. So as we meander down the coast, moving between rivers of wind up to and including 8 knots of wind speed, we wonder when we are going to have to "man up" and deal with a good thrashing.

2011 18 of the 38 boats that start the RNI finished, most withdrew around where we are now, with Matt Woodley loosing the rig of Mr Roosevelt about here.

2012 we had 70-90knots of wind and sea state phenomenal - waves larger than 14m.

So today we have started preps for such situations. Rob and I both have new dry smocks for the South Island and we have cut the necks so they fit, dishes have been done, and the Coppelia made generally ready for sea.

I then listened to the MetService Coastal weather on SSB. At the moment it looks like the worse we will see is South West 35 knots in sea area Miford. But gusts of course will be 50% more.

Take care out there. For those of you wondering why we are not going faster.... this is as fast as we go!

Sally

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