LaGmra Day 21 - Sea Anchor & Clearing up 14 Dec, 06 - 21.02

No luck with the weather, with the Low front (L1011) moving eastwards towards the Canaries. The southerly winds over the weekend are expected to swing around back to the regular Trade Winds schedule by Monday. Tuesday should bring with it a steady favourable Northerly 5 knot wind.
Pavel left today for London and most of the morning was taken up shipping back the excess equipment (trailers, paint, fittings etc) by Fred Olsen. Our work place in dry docks is now all clear. Boat in the water. Ready to depart after more than 20 days ashore on the island.
A major tick off the list has been the onboard electrics and desalinator. We had one last test this morning with Pavel. They functioned perfectly as expected. The water however, tasted a bit if sulphur, but this should right itself once the boat is out of the marina and its been run for a few hours.
Today's featured equipment - the Sea Anchor.
People keep asking what I would do at night to prevent the boat from drifting backwards while I sleep or in storms. As its hard for people to imagine a boat with 3 miles of anchor reaching down to the sea bed, I figure a quick explanation of how my sea anchor works is overdue.
A sea anchor, used to stabilize a boat in heavy weather, anchors not to the sea floor but to the sea itself, as a kind of brake. Usually shaped like a parachute or cone, it is fed out from the ship or boat so that it fills under water; floating sea anchors intended to drag on the surface of the water have also been used. A long line (typically between ten and fifteen boat lengths) is attached to the sea anchor and the bow of the boat or ship.
The boat, though blown by the wind, is slowed down by the sea anchor, and this allows the boat to ride out the storm by keeping the hull in line with the wind and perpendicular to waves. This forms the basic technique of heaving to.
The sea anchor, when fully deployed, holds about 4 tons of water (approx 4000 kg), keeping the bow of the boat at right angles to the waves.
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All is well otherwise. The past weeks have been hectic. Will be relaxing on shore and catching up with sleep while we spend the next few days waiting for the weather to improve. As they say, there are worst places to be stuck in than La Gomera.
More shortly,
Cheers,
B
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OPC Weather Update

Clearing up on docks

Sea Anchor