[p]track4@lita
[pos] 48°01.76'N 166°15.92'W
[w] Wind SW 30kts - gusts into 40's - impressive seas
[h] 055T
[sp] 6.7
[s]
d: 05.06.2018 02:19 GMT-0000
after the last entry, we got a new weather forecast. While no major difference at first glance, there was a slight edge to potential nastiness in the second layer of the forecast. What do you make of 25kt winds with 41kt gusts? 25 is business as usual, but 41 is pure evil. Well, we found out later on.
At first we tried slow down and keep our westerly course as much as we could, to avoid the worst of it, but at some point the waves got to high to keep pushing into it, so we turned away from them. The time had come that have to use up the west we banked earlier. We had 100 nautical miles on our account this morning and it might not be enough to reach Dutch Harbor. We might have to settle for Kings Cove instead.
25 knot winds with gusts to 41 are just like gale force winds with storm force gusts. There is really not that much difference. Only occasionaly you get this lulls for a few minutes, which are not really a relief, because the lower wind pressure in the sail, the more you get shaken around.
At the moment we are running a towel (small sail9) at 120° apparent wind angle before the mountains, that roll toward us. It's all quite cosy, but we would still prefer 10 knots beam reach. Just letting the universe know my wishes, so they can come true later on.
As it looks in the forecast however, the winds will be slowly diminishing throughout the night, but still blow rather stiff from ENE tomorrow and we'll have to keep digging into our west account.
All good aboard. Still ready to get there :)

PS for worried family mambers: As I send this (4 hours afer I wrote above) it has calmed down a bit already. No worries.
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