Day 18: Captain Incompetent strikes again

Honestly, sometimes I wonder how I even made it this far given my complete lack of ability to do anything sensible at times. Yesterday afternoon was lovely with a stiff westerly breeze so we made good progress, and at dusk I ran the engine as usual for an hour while watching a film. I then went up on deck to set sail again but no matter how hard I tried I simply could not get the pesky boat to steer a steady course.

I don’t know what was going on – the wind seemed fine, the sails looked as though they were up the mast where they should be, and all the instruments and things were working, but we just seemed to go round in circles or even backwards. I have a little saying which I find comes in handy at times like this. Make a note of it – you might find it useful:

When the going gets tough… give up!

So I left Odyssey to her own devices and sat back in the cockpit with a nice glass of red wine to watch the stars drifting around in random circles overhead. Unfortunately I couldn’t even do this without mishap as I was suddenly brought to my senses by the smash and tinkle of breaking glass. Now I ask you, what kind of fool puts a wine glass on a slippery cockpit coaming while sailing in a boat which he knows perfectly well is prone to heaving about randomly? At this point I gave up all hope of doing anything useful and went to bed.

In the morning I discovered that we’d ambled around aimlessly all night and were now heading north-west, which is really not a very good direction as it’s straight into the path of a tropical storm which is heading this way and is nearing hurricane strength.

After breakfast I had another go at getting back on track and realised that I’d set the wind instrument to display true rather than apparent wind which might go some way towards explaining my incompetence last night. Somewhat relieved that I wasn’t completely usesless after all I had a go at poling out the drifter to pick up a knot or two as the wind was now down to a gentle F3, but promptly managed to break the pole! Oh well, at least I’ve got a spare one so it’s not the end of the world but I do worry about my clumsiness sometimes.

The rest of the day has been pleasant enough as we drift gently eastwards at a leisurely 4 knots, but I need to take a careful look at this storm approaching from behind me and work out what to do. I’m right in its predicted track and it looks like a big one so I ought really to do something. I’ve probably got 3 or 4 days before it catches up with me so as it gets closer I’ll decide whether to turn left or right to avoid it, or just carry on and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I wonder what I’ll manage to break tonight? The answer will no doubt be revealed tomorrow!

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