Tuesday, July 3rd.
01:30 a.m. Strong breeze. Pouring rain. 8-10 knots. Two more crew-members evacuated. One sea sick, one with hypothermia (severe cooling of the body )
02:45 a.m. We dock on Bragdøya near Kristianssand. Sailing distance so far: Roskilde - Bragdøya 240,5 nautical miles in 34,5 hours. An average of 7 knots.
11.00 a.m. Breakfast. The rest of the day: We fasten the rigging and wicker band for the rudder. A general inspection of the ship, and personal equipment is layed out to dry.
A view from the aft:
By: Troels Nielsen
We reached our current destination (Bragdøya) after 33 hours and 44 minutes under sail, and a sailed distance of 240,5 nautical miles. An average of 7,14 knots, quite good. In the first 24 hours we sailed 169,7 nm. Also good. And that included a short stay at the bridge 'Frederikssund broen'. They had promissed to hold the bridge open for us, but an ambulance with police escort was on the way, so of course we waited.
Up till now it has not been necessary to either row or tack. The wind has been perfect. Not too strong and we could before it all the way. In fact, I do not think it is possible to come from Roskilde to Kristianssand in a shorter route, than the one we have chosen to sail. The wind began as gentle breeze (about 5 m/s), but quickly increased to a fresh breeze (about 8-10 m/s). Crossing the Kattegat and the Skagerak we have on occasion experienced a near gale (about 14-16 m/s). Our top speed was reached sunday night, where we briefly, but several times were sailing more than 12 knots.
When the whole sail is up it measures 112 m2. We decided to reef down before nightfall, and have since then had one or two ropes in the sail (which will say roughly 93 and 75 m2) After reefing the sailing felt more steady and safe.
The sea has been relatively calm, but steadily increasing. The waves have been about 1 meter to 1 1/2 meters. The swell has been coming from the aft, and runs faster than the boat. Of course we get sprays from the crests, but the boat remains almost 'dry', and only a single swell gave the helmsman a shower. The largest waves knocks the ship briefly about 30 degrees off course. The strain on the rudder is substantial, and before we reefed much force was needed holding the rudder (even more than when rowing!). The biggest problem so far, has been that the wicker band for the rudder (the rope that passes through the rudder, the withy and the rudderframe) gets looser. This makes the rudder 'slopy', and difficult to manage properly. The wicker band is 'sown' or tied through 3 holes in the rudderframe and is tightened with wedges. We are sailing with a brand new wicker band, and as it has not yet been fully streched, we have had problems holding it sufficiently tight. We expected this problem, and by now we deal with it by tightening the wicker band with a chain tackle. (an idea we lend from the people sailing the copy of Skuldelev 1, the seagoing knarr 'Ottar')
Open boats can of course not heel as much as for example keel boats. The boat heels up to 20 degrees leeward and 10 degrees windward. Sailing with the wind from behind as we have up till now, means that the heeling is coursed by the swell and not the wind. The waves reach higher than the oarports. The ports are shut by oarflaps, but they do not shut tight so we take in a little bit of water every time. There is still a long way to the uppermost part of the sheer, which for this exact reason has been raised with a so called wash strake.
All included, this first part of our voyage turned out good. The boat as well as the wind has behaved perfectly.
MT