8.4 knots on a 22ft. Fabola Scanper sailing boat

A safe harbour, 59°21'29''N 18°17'34'' E, Nacka, Sweden

Reefed mainsail, no job, all sails let out as far as they go, and I was still making 8.4 knots on a 22 ft. Fabola Scanper sailing boat! I am speechless. I could have chosen to go tomorrow, with less wind and less angry clouds threatening to soak me with rain and thunderbolts. I was very tempted, because 46 nm isn’t very difficult to sail in perfect conditions, and the reason why I wanted to leave my idyllic dock today instead of tomorrow, was a pretty vague and ambiguous one. I just wanted to move on. The weather report had made it clear that it would be windy, but the term windy, like all measurements, is relative. Would winds at 9 m/s with gusts of 22 m/s be too much for my boat to handle? Would it be too much for me to handle? I have not yet written a lot on this blog about my plans to sail around the world. Well, here you go; I will sail around the world. All great things start as ideas, and in the beginning they are just but ideas until foundations are put beneath them. That is when they become plans. I am trying to build foundations for the adventure of a lifetime. Out at sea I won’t be able to choose the weather, and if there is a storm I will have to make it. Having sailed a lot in tropical climates I also wanted to test if my desire to sail around the world would lessen by exposure to harsh and difficult weather. After having sailed for two days in 6°C and rain soaking wet due to lack of proper sailing gear (turns out scuba boots are NOT, I repeat, are not, a good substitute for rain boots, even though one would think that they are made to keep warm when wet), and after having lived on my tiny boat for three weeks, I can conclude that I have no intents to drop my plans. After today I have learned the following: My boat is not appropriate for sailing in winds of 23 m/s as it cannot reef the jib properly. It also has an engine that is not strong enough to head against the wind – leads to problems if you can only go in the same direction as the wind. This spectacular outboard engine also won’t run if the speed of the boat is a little too fast than the speed of the rotation of the propeller, so if you have waves coming from behind making the boat surf on it and speed up – it will stop. This is all valuable knowledge that I did not know about my boat. Consequently, this boat should only be sailed in those conditions where the sails are appropriate for moving it. The engine just won’t help me when it comes down to a critical situation. I encourage being bold and exploring limits, but I am not about to go from bold to stupid, and go too close or cross the limits. My boat physically couldn’t head against the wind by engine, and sailing without a foresail and having limited maneuvering control in the most trafficked passage for cruise liners just seemed like fools endeavor. I decided to take shelter in a small bay enjoying some chocolate and a book in the sun, just half a nautical mile from my goal destination of the day. After today I can conclude that, yes, I really do want to sail around the world and that I might by the time I leave be both capable and knowledgeable enough for a safe passage.

#sailing #Ascorbic #sailingaroundtheworld