The slow-and-steady strategy after a big overnight squall: reefed at 4 knots for 4 hours
After navigating around a major lightning squall at around 2:00 a.m., Lauren Landers Sailing was able to sail again about 30 minutes later. But because she had already reefed and was uncertain whether more squalls were coming, she chose to keep the reefs in and accept slow boat speed rather than shake them out and risk being caught overpowered. The result was roughly 4 knots for the next four hours. She frames this as a deliberate trade-off: slow and steady over speed and risk when the situation is still uncertain.
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What it feels like to transit an atoll for the first time without it being too sketchy
After completing the pass entry, Lauren reflects that the conditions were relatively flat, which made for a good first experience. The key takeaway is that if the waves had been bigger, waiting for them to settle would have been the right c
Slowing down deliberately to time a reef pass arrival correctly
As Lauren Landers Sailing closed within range of the atoll, she reefed her jib intentionally to reduce boat speed. She was on track to arrive too early, and entering a reef pass at the wrong time, before the light is good or the current is
Deciding not to fish offshore when the likely catch would be unmanageably large
Lauren Landers Sailing made a deliberate choice not to fish during this particular offshore passage. Her reasoning was practical: anything she hooked out there would almost certainly be very large, a big tuna for example, and dealing with l