Cruise, Day 25

The northwest wind that had been building all evening decided to get me up at midnight to set a second anchor. The anchor bearings indicated we had dragged. We had just moved just a bit. I had to study the anchor bearings awhile before confirming that we had indeed moved, but the soft bottom wasn’t going to get any better, and if I wanted a sound night’s sleep, the extra ground tackle was essential. When I got up just before dawn it was obvious we were weatherbound yet again. The wind was a steady 30 kts. with occasional higher gusts. The Gale Force was gone, but as the name implies, it was built with a high displacement/length ratio, one of those said to be fun to sail in a gale. Plus, he was headed south, so the northwest wind would have given him a broad reach on the starboard tack. He would have had an utterly fantastic day.

The battery was only holding about a 55% charge, so I dug into the cockpit locker to check the fluid levels in the battery. They were fine, so it was obviously the steady dose of overcast weather and shorter days were combining to cut my charging rate. It had been working flawlessly, however, so I was sure that everything would be fine as soon as we got a bit of sunlight.