Light winds

3 August 2021

Light winds

As said, we sailed from the Faroe Islands towards the Shetland Islands. The idea was to sail between the Mainland and Yell. But that didn’t work out because on the course we had to sail, we kept too little pressure in the rig to allow the sails to be full on the swell, causing the sails to swing. By luffing a bit, we got a little more pressure in the sails, and they stayed full. As a result, we ended up a bit further north than initially planned, but then we go somewhere else. After all, it is the Northern Wanderer, so there is no fixed plan (except for the arrival).

Just northeast of the Shetlands we made a jibe and sailed into a beautiful bay. There we dropped anchor for a quiet night.

This morning we left under sail to sail in the direction of Norway. There is still a northerly wind, but it will soon stop. The further east we are, the longer that northerly wind is there. That was the plan.

The windbreak that arrives behind the northern winds seems to come a bit earlier than hoped and slowly overtakes us. As a result, the wind is a bit lighter than expected and we again have the same problem as on the way to the Shetlands; too little pressure in the sails to keep them full, causing them to flap.

Luffing is no longer an option, otherwise we will end up in Bodø!

So, we lowered the gaff sails and hoisted the course. With a ‘wall’ of square sails we sail to the east-south-east. This is a lot slower than when you can sail fully rigged, so the windbreak will probably catch up with us even faster.

Behind this area of ​​no wind there will be southern wind that seems to continue for a while. That doesn’t make it any easier to get to Bremerhaven, but it does make it an interesting puzzle. At the moment we see a few possibilities that could lead to a correct solution to this puzzle, but they all say that we should now go as far east as possible. In the meantime, we continue to monitor the forecast to see which solution seems the best when we must make a definitive choice. Which one that will be….