Syzygy Sailing

Bought a boat, fixed a boat, sailed to Australia, sold the boat.

Rolling Again

Written by

mattholmes

in

POST DATED

(written 6/6)

We’re back in the middle of the ocean, on a five day passage between the Marquesas and the Tuamotus.  For the past 24 hours we’ve been sailing “dead down wind” and rolling from left to right in an unceasing pendulum of torture.  Thirty degrees to port, thirty degrees to starboard, tick . . . tock . . . tick . . . tock . . .  It’s never-ending, and it’s very unpleasant.  I’ve tried every trick to mitigate it; it is a result of very light wind and a following sea, and I have conceded that, short of turning around and going in the wrong direction, the torturous motion must be endured.

On the upside, there is a really beautiful sunset.

Below is a picture of us rolling to port, then rolling to starboard; imagine constantly alternating between those two positions.

Comments

3 responses to “Rolling Again”

  1. Mark McCormick Avatar
    Mark McCormick

    Brilliant photos! This conveys DDW better than any book. What about holding 30 deg off DDW and “tacking” downwind? Also, I really like the idea of twin headsails though with a roller, this is not possible. Thanks for the updates and glad to see you two are both safe and having fun. (Green with envy!)

  2. mattholmes Avatar
    mattholmes

    thanks mark! Yeah in that particular situation the wind was too light and seas too big; even on a beam reach we were rolling back and forth with slatting sails . . . in other situations heading up a bit has worked . . . and I don’t know what you mean about a “roller”–are you referring to roller reefing or to the rolling motion?

  3. Carter Avatar
    Carter

    Offshore power boaters and fishermen use small flopper stoppers that look like a delta wing airplane with a led waited nose. They reduce your speed by a half knot and hum a bit but are very effective. I’ve wondered if you could hang one off the end of your wisker pole to make trade wind sailing a little more pleasant.

    Thanks for the well documented maintenance blog.

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