Captain's Log

November 26, 2002

Hello all,
 
Well it would be funny, as long as it's not you who it happened too......
 
So the wind has filled back in, sort of, from 2 -3 kts to 4 - 5 kts, well its better after 24 hours of basically slatting sails that enough to drive you crazy a 2 kt increase is big. Anyway as the new breeze filled, it was very shifty, with direction changes of 40 degrees or so. I decide to go south and my course is 190, OK but I would rather not head west at all. Then there is a shift so the other tack is favored, or was for 10 mins, I wait 5 mins then tack back. As this is going on I notice floating by an old fishing buoy and a few minutes later what looks like a cushion with lots of barnacles. Back to the wind shifts, they are constant, throw in a couple of squalls and their shifts and I am tacking every 10 mins, trying to find the best angle to Cape Town. A hour or so passes and what do I see and old fishing buoy coming off my bow, how funny I think, it looks like the other one, but they all look the same, sort of......then you guessed it, sitting in the water is an old cushion with lots of barnacles !!! Not only I am going slowly, I am going slowly no where !!
 
So to make myself feel better, I am typing this and will not tack no matter what for at least and hour or until the normal sunset shiftiness is past.
 
My sense of humor is surely being tested.
 
Alan
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