Wednesday 21st March 2012

Early in the morning, was able to cut the engine which had been gently turning over to keep us pointing in the right direction when speed dropped to 1-2 kt in very light wind overnight. As I poled out the stays'l to starboard, a juvenile Sooty albatross flew around - distinctive pale collar on its upper neck, otherwise all dark. The albatross outline, together with relative wing size & shape, is very eye-catching - you can see it's an albatross long before you know which kind it is! A Yellow-nosed was also nearby, later in the morning, and a Wandering, and our company included a pair of the usual Soft-plumaged petrels... and a prion I couldn't see well enough to identify properly - haven't seen one of those for quite a time... lovely blue-grey and white plumage and distinctive dark 'M' marking on its upper wings.

Went to start the generator overnight - started but wasn't putting anything into the batteries - same problem as I'd had shortly after leaving Cape Town -so, hopefully, same solution... Opened the case, ... sure enough, the actuator spindle wasn't moving freely, as it needed to. Got a spanner to the actuator spindle nuts ... freed the spindle... sprayed some lubricant for good measure (needs some proper grease when we get to Hobart)... genset worked fine when started up again ... YES!

Had a long radio chat with Greg, VE0MUR, after our daily contact with Graham, ZS2ABK (on shore in East London, running the S.African Maritime Mobile Net) - who I've had only poor copy on for quite a time now, whereas Greg seems to be able to hear him OK most days (Greg's about 730 ml WSW of me) . Our chat started, as usual, with a long discussion on weather coming up but then we got onto birds - he's also keenly interested in them but has a different birdbook from me that he's referring to - Harrison - very well-respected, but very out-of-date, with all the recent studies and research that's gone on since 1985 when the book was published....It was very interesting to compare notes.

Was very sad to hear what Petr had to tell me when we made radio contact tonight (a very good one - for the first time we could hear each other very clearly!). He was hove-to in winds of 45knots, but had seen 75kt on display earlier and it had ripped his reefed mainsail, so it was now useless. Even worse, he was busily trying to deploy his parachute anchor (his boat has a long keel for which that works well) when he lost the line - and the parachute with it. He had already been having problems with his autopilots (several!) and has been making use of rubber bungies oto his tiller for most of his 'autopilot' steering help of late. So he told me that he's decided to abandon his solo nonstop RTW attempt and head for Auckland via his 'antipode' WP - which is even further to the SSE than he is now. He's had a lot of very strong weather and has hove to constantly over the short time I've been in contact with him. I feel very sad for him - he's put so much time and effort into it, having built the 28ft sloop 'Singa' himself and, from what he's told me, he's clearly made thorough preparations for his attempt and can repair most things on board. He has a spare mainsail which he hopes to be able to hoist in calmer conditions - as and when... but I worry that there's more bad weather headed his way shortly, so I hope he'll be OK. He's clearly upset by his experience, understandably. I hope to hear things are better when I speak to him tomorrow.

As for me, I think I also could well heave to shortly... Most of the time, we've nice wind around 21-22kt, but it keeps gusting up to near 30kt and we rush along at speed, sometimes surfing on a big wave that happens by. The worry is that the wind is set to increase from now into Friday and an area of very big swell is on its way with the increased wind - so conditions will get more difficult. If I want to rest tonight, the best answer is to heave to. That would also neatly solve the problem of heading too far N (Hobart is to the SE) if I were to run before the wind, or too far E which would end us up in the really big swell later tomorrow.

10:30pm ..... Well that's it - we're hove to! Overhead, the stars were beautiful, but clouds were lurking all around. For now, it's some nice hot stew and a good sleep.... I can always sail on again in daylight - when I can see what's happening with the seas.

With the light wind last night overnight, DMG was just 99 n.ml. Hobart was 1181 n.ml. away at 1200GMT.

Tuesday 20th March 2012

Had been thinking of getting underway at 8am LT, but seas still big at 6am, and wind, although mainly around 24kt, gusted to 30kt in rainsquall. Decided to take my time, check weather info, have breakfast, clear up in galley...

On looking over weather forecasts (downloaded fresh set of localised gribs to help in decision-making), it seemed clear that I'd be better off staying around 40S and NOT going too fast - later on Thursday into Friday, another area of really big swell and strong winds is due to be all over the E part of the Gt Australian Bight area - making for another probable heaving-to situation overnight Thursday.... better NOT to be too far E at that time, to avoid 8-10m seas and stronger wind .... so I was NOT in a rush to get under way!

11:45am LT: Another rainsquall came through at just over 30 knots and seas are still well up - decided to have some coffee, relax, catch up on emails and make another big stew.... then I'll review things....

1.30 pm Under way - seas still big - big wind waves on top of the big swell - but wind settled down to SSW 20-22 kt. Beam reaching under sunny skies, but air cold - S wind bringing colder air with it... (Put the heater on for a time this evening.)

Later: Slowing down, unfurled some genoa.... Often tossed around by remaining swell... Outlook: even slower until later tonight ..

Enjoyed my stew tonight - had used lots of vegetables and tried it with corned beef instead of ham - seems to be fine! Also enjoyed some kudu biltong at lunchtime.

Greg on 'Alcidae' has incurred so much damage to his steel boat from gales down S that he's decided he must come in to Hobart to make repairs - Customs were contacted and have been very helpful to him. He's about 5 days behind me now.

DMG today: 44 n.ml. (drifted 11 n.ml. while hove-to, under way for just 6 1/2 hr). 1267 n.ml. to Hobart; 380 n.ml. S. of Esperance (Hi there, Sue!)

Today's report:

TIME: 2012/03/20 12:00 LAT: 40-11.65S LONG: 120-44.02E
COURSE: 095T SPEED: 4.3
WIND_SPEED: 14 WIND_DIR: 190
SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 5.0M SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 40% BARO: 1022 TREND: 2
AIR_TEMP: 13.0C SEA_TEMP: 16.0C

Monday 19th March 2012

Shortly before dawn, having sailed nicely overnight, the wind gusted fom a sedate 22-25kt to around 33knots - definitely time to tie in the third reef! Took a time, not helped by the loose batten end, high up, trying to catch in anything it could, but I eventually finished in daylight - and was rewarded by seeing a pair of Wandering albatross flying nearby.

We had a great day today, sailing in slowly increasing seas and SW6 wind, anything from 23-27kt, occasionally dropping to below 20kt, making good speed despite the frequent big waves from astern. It was nice to see long spells of speeds of over 6 knots consistently and the boat was behaving well under autopilot- which has been coping fine with the difficult conditions - sometimes in 'windvane' mode,n which I find useful for 'dead downwind' situations when the wind is rather variable, as today.

By sunset, with the wind regularly in the high 20s and waves that much bigger, I was seriously thinking of heaving to, realizing that I'd not be able to rest otherwise overnight, when I caught sight of a mass of dark grey cloud astern... that decided me! By the fast-fading daylight, I hurriedly furled in the stays'l as the cloud came over and the wind started whistling around us, and got us hove-to - just in time, as daylight was gone, the wind was around 30 knots by then and the forecast was for winds to stay up overnight.

It was a good decision and the winds have varied a lot since then from 22 kt to well over 30kt in the frequent gusts. I was able to cook a decent meal and will get a good sleep... Amusingly, Greg on Alcidae', who was hove-to for 36hrs until this morning, is probably still underway in nice winds and little swell where he is now, while it's my turn to be hove-to. Being a good distance apart, I'm now getting the area of wind and swell that he suffered from over Saturday night onward.

Despite over an hour of being hove-to, our 24 hr DMG to noon GMT was 122 n.ml.

Hopefully, by morning, the wind and seas will have died down somewhat so I can get underway again - but there's another, similar, area of big swell and winds forecast for later in the week... I might stay around 40S to avoid the worst of that too....

Sunday 18th March 2012

Writing this as I wait for latest grib (weather) files to download - slow tonight, despite trying different stations to find one with best propagation. (Had a big problem last night trying to send off my log report)

It's been a relaxing day - seem to have had several of late, which is nice! Last night was very bumpy, sailing ENE close-hauled, but fast (around 6.9 kt), in NNW 22-24kt at times, although mainly around 20kt, dying to 16kt around dawn and then to 13kt over most of the day. The expected Front came through suddenly, as I was preparing to let out the 2nd reef, at 0230GMT/10:30am LT. Wind switched from NW to SSW in very little time- gybed the mains'l, which fortunately was slowed by being on a preventer lead both through an open jammer and partly around a winch - both just released as part of my sail change preparations - so no great drama!

Beautiful clear sunny skies of the early morning were replaced by murky, slightly drizzly overcast ahead of the front and then by showery grey clouds behind. Soon after sunset, the skies cleared again - lovely starry night now, S. Cross high above us. Sea temperature has risen quickly from this morning's 17C to this evening's 19C as we've ambled further N..... more Indian Ocean than Southern Ocean!

By stark contrast, Greg on 'Alcidae3', to the WSW, down at 43.5S, 103E, is having nasty 30-35+ kt winds, gusting higher, and had been hove-to since 9pm LT last night, in 7m seas .. All as forecast, but I think he'd rather hoped conditions might be less strong and he'd be fine after deploying his drogue - which he hasn't because of the tack he was on when the strong winds came through, heaving to under sail instead. He sounded a bit fed up at the thought of possibly having to stay hove to until tomorrow morning, judging from the forecast... I think he's now been persuaded of the advantage of being slightly further north than he has been...

I'm also expecting the same area of strong wind and big seas to reach us tomorrow into Tuesday but hopefully, having come this much further north than I was 3 days ago, they'll be less than if I'd stayed at 42.5S.... we'll see ....

White-chinned petrels have disappeared of late, to be replaced recently by Sooty shearwaters who seem, in turn, to have been replaced, today at least, by several, all-dark, Flesh-footed shearwaters - with a noticeable pale, relatively slim bill with dark tip. A yellow-nosed albatross came around several times over the day. Also, saw a Wandering albatross, looking rather like a juvenile but with a noticeable dark chest band (could be a Snowy, Tristan or Amsterdam, my book says!).

24hr DMG - was going to be excellent, if we'd managed to keep up last night's speeds, but with the wind down so much over today, we've only managed a mediocre 119 n.ml. We've passed Cape Leeuwin, which is now 380 n.ml. to the NNW, and have 1411 sailing miles to get to Hobart.

Saturday 17th March 2012 .... St Patrick's!

Tied in the 2nd reef around 10pm last night, in expectation of stronger winds - which didn't happen (of course!) but wind did veer more - so the effect was the same and I just had to gradually sheet in the sails as we got closer to the wind.

Sky cleared nicely around midday from the gloomy overcast of earlier, but pressure has been dropping all day... another Cold Front on its way - but this one should be fairly gentle as it passes by where I am now, having sailed further north! (Still expecting those nasty swells and gales on Monday - reason for heading N now, trying to avoid worst of them)

Magnetic variation is changing rapidly - it has gone down from 25W overnight Tues/Wed to 10W now - I check it daily. (Variation gives difference between compass reading and true heading) When I started from Cape Town, it was also 25W, it has increased to a maximum of 47W at 067-069E and has been decreasing since.

4.50pm: Just spent ages with a mug of coffee in the companionway, as we plough our way close-hauled through the confused seas in N-NNW wind of around 20knots. We're in 'wind-vane' mode to keep our speed up - presently 5.7kt. Otherwise, speed can drop to 2kt if we get too close to the wind, trying to make a course of 065T, whereas being about 60 degrees off the apparent wind works fine, giving a reasonable speed through the water. I can spend hours gazing around when conditions are pleasant - as now, with some light cloud and plenty of sunshine - & even feeling warm at times! Watched several petrels and shearwaters swooping and gliding gracefully around the boat - they've adopted us, it seems!

Earlier, had absolutely no copy on Graham, ZS2ABK, of the S.A.M.M.Net, who must have been trying to contact both of us at 0610GMT as usual. Even Greg, on 'Alcidae3' who has been hearing him better than I have, heard nothing. So we went to our usual frequency of 8297, which works well for us, to exchange our posiitions (he's at 43S, 103E; I'm at 41S, 114E) and current weather info and discuss the weather coming up (as always!!), grib files, RF interference, and other chit-chat. His weather is so much stronger than mine, although he's only 2 degrees S of me... with 30-35 to my18-20 knots of wind... He hove to again for a few hours overnight.... Seems he has sustained a lot of damage on his steel boat, including tangs come loose from the deck-plates which have lifted (nasty!) and steering gear not behaving properly, among other things, so he's seriously contemplating following me into Hobart to repair his boat - he's clearly into welding and sounds as though he needs to be! Also managed a chat just before sunset on 14350 kHz with Petr, OK4SNG, on 28ft 'Singa' - he's about 350 ml SW of Tasmania and making now for a waypoint S.of New Zealand (his 'antipode' compared with Falmouth, Cornwall, England, from where he started last year).

Low cloud came over and blotted out the sun around 5pm - moist, warm air, almost foggy, with very reduced visibility, but wind still up around 20kt, from NNW, so we're making good speed still, but very bumpy in confused, rough seas!.

At 1200 GMT/8pm LT (Perth time!) DMG: 129 n.ml. 413 n.ml.due S of Cape Leeuwin; Hobart is 1559 sailing miles away (via the S. Capes) to the ESE.

Friday 16th March 2012

Another lovely sunny day of good sailing, in winds around 20knots, until late afternoon, by when grey cloud had covered the sky. We've been making excellent speed, around 7kt consistently, and while the seas have definitely increased over the day, to around 4.5m or so, they've not cut our speed down - so we made a pleasing DMG of 142 n.ml. over the noon-to-noon (GMT) 24hrs.

The disturbing news of today is that another sail batten end has come adrift from its mast track car. I spotted it this evening as I was thinking about taking in the second reef, with possibly- increasing wind forecast for overnight. Another rusty ring has, I presume, gone missing from the pin holding the batten end to the car, allowing the pin to move up and release the two parts. It's the second batten, above the previous one that I fixed, and needs attention as soon as conditions allow me to get to it.... I can't leave it too long, or the sail could end up damaged.

I made a special point of cutting my nails today - several had got broken over the last few days, so it was time for a visit to the manicurist! Think I need to visit the hairdresser also - but that's a more difficult one to organise...

I've been busy with emails to and from Ace Sails over the last few days, trying to organize a replacment Jordan series drogue. There were several options as to the way forward but hopefully now, it's all in hand and one will soon be on its way to Hobart, ready for my onward passage.. Dave Pelissier has, as usual, been very quick and helpful in his responses!

Another day without managing to make contact with Sailmail by radio - those solar flares, presumably, aren't helping. And no contact either with Petr, the Czech single-hander, but a long chat with Greg at lunch-time, discussing options and weather forecasts - there's a nasty swell and srong winds expected next Sunday night into Tuesday and it's difficult to avoid them, although I'm now heading ENE (again!) in an effort to get out of the worst of the conditions. Greg, at least, has his series drogue ready to use (which he's deployed five times recently!) whereas I don't - I can only heave to under sail and I'm not totally convinced as to my safety doing that, so I'm better to try to head out of the way of trouble if I can, even though it adds to my journey time. I've been pleased with our excellent speed yesterday and today, making 141 and 142 n.ml.

I saw another juvenile wandering albatross this morning - underwings were whitish with black edges, rather like the adult, body all-dark, distinctive white face - very eye-catching! Spent several sessions standing in the companionway, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine and watching the birds around - very pleasant!

Present position: 42S, 112E making a course of 065T at around 6-7 knots. At 1200 GMT today, we were 487 n.ml. SSW of Cape Leeuwin (S of Perth) and had a mere 1687 n.ml. to go before getting near to Hobart....

Thursday 15th March 2012

1700GMT/Just gone midnight LT! Just finished gybing the mains'l - we're on port tack now, in winds which have finally decided very definitely to veer to just north of W ... to WNW at present. Took a time for the wind to settle - I'd been waiting to gybe for some time, but the wind kept backing to WSW from W, so I waited.

Wind is 20 knots or under - and has been all day, making for very pleasant sailing under mainly cloudy skies. This time yesterday, the wind was varying between 14 and 20 knots and I was debating whether to tie in the first reef ... By 2am, I'd got up from my bunk to do just that - we were swinging about in the stronger wind, well over-canvassed, so we've had the one reef in all day. There's been an increasing SW swell over the day - to over 4 m by this evening, from 3m or less this morning.

It was lovely to watch a pair of storm petrels flit about on the water surface soon after sunset, as I sipped a mug of tea - round and around "Nereida" they circled in the gathering gloom. I couldn't understand how they could possibly see anything in the water, but they kept dipping their feet and bill in the sea, clearly expecting to pick up something. A pair of Yellow-nosed albatross and several Sooty shearwaters, along with some prions and soft-plumaged petrels, were also flying around - the usual group! .... but no sign of a white-faced, dark, juvenile albatross I'd spotted yesterday evening at dusk.

We're expecting strong conditions on Saturday and again on Monday, both following Cold Fronts passing over - along with a nasty, big, unavoidable swell Monday into Tuesday... the result of cyclone Lua's remnant coinciding with a deep Low further S and a High SW of Australia - all looking rather complicated, but definitely giving strong conditions.

For now, my late meal is waiting, before I get to my bunk for some sleep...

DMG: 141 n.ml. - the result of good sailing, in relatively calm seas for a change!

Present position: 43S, 110E , heading 085T at 6 knots.

Wednesday 14th March 2012

1pm LT: We're ambling along now under full main, staysail and some genoa, in bright sunshine and rising pressure - it's all contrasts out here!

The Cold Front passed over around 2a.m.LT (roughly when expected), preceded by lots of very heavy rain - good since it will have washed some of the salt off the boat, although my hat, hair and outers got soaked. Soon after dark, with wind beginning to increase, I'd taken in the 3rd reef to be safe, not being sure how strong the winds would become as it got closer... In the event, the most I saw was 32kt, so having kept slightly further N might have helped - certainly, being on a broad reach and in wind-vane mode was good. We headed NNE for a short time while I gybed the main, set the stays'l on its pole and generally sorted us out in the SW6 winds behind the Front... Nothing too dramatic - in fact, almost pleasant, with the moon giving some light from behind thin cloud following the rain, and seas not too bad. By 6am, we were rolling a lot in confused seas, in SSW5 wind (only 18kt) and with pressure rising... There was a lovely sunrise, made all the better by seeing a Royal and a Yellow-nosed albatross as well as a Sooty shearwater nearby.

We've several Sooties around now, swooping around the boat and close to the water... and the Royal albatross glided by again, on fixed long wings - it's so much larger than the Sooties, they seem small by comparison, but they're quite big birds really.

1300 GMT/8pm LT - Dark! Feels as though we're going so slowly, but in fact we're making reasonable speed (5-6 knots), considering we're on a very broad reach, heading E in 14 knots of WSW wind. The relatively calm seas make it seem as though we're not moving much, although we're constantly rolling slightly in quite a definite 3m, 8 sec SW swell running - clearly being caused by a Low in that direction.

I feel so very relaxed in these conditions! Sitting here, after watching the sun set and the birds swoop around as darkness fell and the stars came out...as my food warms up! Catching up with emails and looking over a newly-downloaded set of grib weather files and weatherfaxes (Tropical Cyclone 'Lua' might cause us a small problem after it passes S over Australia as a strong depression and on into the Gt Australian Bight early next week, Bob McD tells me...) I even caught a station in Iowa calling clearly on 14300 kHz - I responded and sent good wishes to a friend!

Propagation is so variable - I failed to be heard in Kauai by Tom, K4XV, who was Net Control for the Pacific Seafarers Net this morning (although I could hear him!), but yesterday's Net Control, Jane, NH7TZ, heard me quite well. I finally, after several days of trying, managed to have a radio chat with Petr, OK4SNG, single-handing on board 'Singa' as he makes his way to S of Tasmania - he was hove-to at 45S, 136E in E winds of 40 knots - not useful, when you're trying to sail E!! I had my usual daily chat on 8297 with Greg on 'Alcidae' - he's close enough for poor propagation due to solar flares not to cause us any probem.

Time to finish with emails and eat... Keeping an eye on the wind strength - keeps going up to 18 kt from 14 kt... If it goes much higher, will need to take in the first reef... (Conditions are looking reasonable for the next few days...)

Noon (GMT) DMG today: 115 n.ml. C.Leeuwin: 647 n.ml. to the NE ; Hobart: 1876 sailing miles away to the E...

Present position: 42S, 106E

Tuesday 13th March 2012

Dull day with solid overcast skies. But the seas were down, after the calm of yesterday and the N wind slowly increased overnight until, by 9am LT, it was at 20 knots - and stayed there the rest of the day. Yet another Cold Front is on its way - sometime after midnight, probably... May have winds up to 35 kt but hopefully not - it looks as though it might be fairly mild when it reaches us - unlike the fairly strong conditions it gave Greg overnight last night, making him heave to for a bit.

I enjoyed a nice meal last night of ham and eggs with sauteed potato and onion - fresh eggs are still fine, just keep turning them every now and then, where they sit in their bubble plastic protection in the aft cabin. On today's menu is lentil and onion soup with chunks of ham.

A different bird appeared among the usual petrels today - all-dark with lighter flashes on its underwings - almost certainly a Sooty Shearwater (definitely not an albatross). Kept coming close to the boat and was clearly very curious - or maybe it was hoping to get some 'chum' to feed on? Wondered whether it was thinking of trying to land, at one point!

Solar flare(s) making radio comms. difficult - emails taking noticeably longer to transmit and receive. Graham, ZS2ABK had trouble hearing me on 14316 kHz and I hardly heard him at all to begin with. Had no problem chatting to Greg, VE0MUR, 'Alcidae', on 8297 (marine frequency) afterward. He's now at my latitude although some distance to the W (he was close to 093E today and I'm at 103E) but close enough for good reception. Petr, OK4SNG, on 'Singa', came up around 1000 GMT on 14350 kHz - he's well to the E. I heard him quite clearly but he had too much noise again to hear me well enough to chat - I think he's feeling a bit frustrated, having turned off everything electrical, including his wind generator - and still he has too much noise - those solar flares, probably! Hopefully, over the next few days, things will improve slowly. Jane, NH7TZ, on Kauai, was delighted to be able to make contact during the Pacific Seafarers Net - well enough to get all my details.

It's dark now and I'm going to get some rest - having set the autopilot on to 'wind-vane' mode, so it gives me good warnings of any windshifts as the Front gets closer.

With the light wind of yesterday, we didn't quite make 3 figures on our 24hr run: DMG: 99 n.ml.

Cape Leeuwin 735 n.ml to the NE; Hobart 1989 sailing miles away - under 2000!!

Monday 12th March 2012

A very pleasant day - not much sailing, with wind down to just 5 knots and variable in direction by noon, but with warm sunshine and swell down to around just 2.5m, I got some important jobs done on deck. When boatspeed got down to below 2.5kt, I decided to motor gently, using minimal fuel but keeping us going very slowly in the right direction. (Alternative was sitting around with the sail flapping in the swell - or taking the sail down!)

Priority job was to re-attach the third mainsail batten end-fitting to the mast track car it had come adrift from when a tiny rusty ring had fallen off some time back, enabling the pin holding the two parts together to move up. Took quite a time before I figured out how to persuade the two parts to get close enough to begin to think of replacing the pin through them. Fortunately, I was able to attach a string to the batten end fitting to pull it towards the mast and that helped a lot after partly releasing reefs and halyard to give some slack. Tying myself to the mast was essential with the swell running, even though it's nothing like as big as it has been - the occasional bigger wave came by and suddenly we would roll around a lot!

Next job was to deal with the staysail pole - screws holding both end fittings in place kept working loose & threatening to come out completely. Every screw was removed, or nearly so, from both end fittings and the threads had Loctite carefully applied before screwing them back in tightly. I then wrapped plenty of amalgamating tape around the pole and screw heads - ending up with insulating tape over the top, to be doubly sure!!

Next, I had to re-make the bowline on the staysail sheet where it had chafed badly in the pole jaw again, and the damaged end had to be cut away (luckily the line is well over-long..)

As the sun was setting, I managed to replace a missing stanchion base fairlead for the genoa furling line - it wasn't too easy, fixing the nuts and bolts that had gone missing from the stanchion base on the toe rail without dropping them or my precious tools into the water below, so I might leave other two (less important) missing ones until landfall in Tasmania.

Beautiful sunset and lovely sunny afternoon - it had been quite pleasant sitting on deck working! Just a bit rolly still. I went running for my camera thinking we were about to have a spectacular sunset in calm seas - unusual for the Southern Ocean - but a cloud bank on the horizon spoiled the sunset - no chance of a green flash tonight! But Venus and Jupiter were quite close together amd shining brightly as the moon rose in the E.

Wind has been variable at 4-5 kt so we were still motoring very gently, hoping the wind would come up enough to let us cut the engine..... Have just put out some genoa to help - wind is now from N (was from S earlier) and up to 9 knots, so will post this while engine is charging batteries - and then we'll sail in peace and quiet!

DMG to noon GMT today: 104 n.ml.

Sunday 11th March 2012

Recovering from last night's weather...!

Surfing, and just about keeping going by 1600Z (oh-so-dark 11pm!).... The 28-34 kt winds of earlier had become consistent 35-38kt winds and 5-6+ m seas, which I'd put astern for more comfort. Suddenly they became 44-48kt winds as the expected Cold Front came through with its windshift - all got rather nasty, nail-biting stuff...! But we survived and made up on sleep over today - so I'm feeling much better now!

Radiio communication is very difficult just now, due, I hear, to a massive solar flare disrupting things. Hopefully, propagation should improve over the next few days and get less noisy than at present. Made no contact whatsoever, 'nothing heard', with the S.African Maritime Mobile Net at local midday, although yesterday Graham, ZS2ABK, was very clear. Did finally manage to connect this afternoon with Petr, OK4SNG, on 'Singa' - but noise was so bad on frequency that we had to give up - tomorrow may be better. One result of the solar flare is that the 'Aurora Australis' - a moving 'curtain' of light - is supposed to be visible now - but with recent overcast skies at night, I've not been lucky enough to see any display.

Went on deck earlier to screw in one particular screw on the stays'l pole end that was sticking way out again - leaning outboard on the pole felt definitely at risk, as we rolled about in 4-5m seas! We're expecting very little wind later tomorrow, so I'm hoping then to lower the pole (we're on a run at present) and deal with it. From advice I've received from John, VK4DBJ, in Queensland, Australia, sounds as though I should remove the end, if possible, to smear Duralac on it, put a touch into the screw holes also, before screwing back the screws with Loctite on their thread. I also thought I'd run some amalgamating/pressure tape around the pole end, over all the screw heads, to hold them in and stop them from even thinking of moving... He commented that the pole ends are normally screwed in place to allow servicing inside from time to time.

Oops! ... Wind has been around 20 kt since midday - but just went shooting up to 30kt - no moon visible in overcast sky, so difficult to see anything - must be a 'cloud effect' (squall) - hopefully will soon die down again.. We're supposed to be into lessening winds over the next day or so, as a High drops down over us... Yes, back down to 20 kt again... good! Didn't last long.

Last night, around 3.30am LT, after gybing the mains'l and getting us back on course in pleasanter winds of just 25kt, I realised it was near 2130GMT - so thought I'd see if I could connect in with Tony's Net on 14315 kHz - an Aussie/Kiwi mix of friendly radio amateurs I'd last chatted to two years ago when I was near Australia and N.Z. To my surprise, I connected - not too well, but enough to pass on greetings and my position... I think the guy who heard me was also surprised when he realised just where I was!

We've moved into yet another time zone now - GMT + 7 hrs. My midday GMT position and weather report occurs as darkness is falling - after sunset...

DMG: 134 n.ml. Cape Leeuwin: 908 n.ml. to ENE; Hobart (due E): 2190 sailing miles away.

Saturday 10th March 2012

Believe I saw Mercury bright just above the W horizon last night, soon after the sun had set - I'm not sure I've ever seen it before, possibly just once or twice, despite looking many times! It's only usually visible for a maximum of about half an hour around sunrise or sunset. In the E, was the bright moon, shining like a floodlight - was easily able to set the staysail on its pole and sheet out the prevented mainsail by its light! The wind had died and we were slopping about in the still quite big swell - yuck!

Fortunately, by 3am LT, the wind was a little better, so we were making just under 5 kt, instead of the 2-3 kt of before....losing some to current/tide.

TC Koji, off NW Australia. looked at one stage as if it might come south along 100E to get in our way but fortunately got "shunted west and should now go south along 80E so is no worry," Bob McD tells me. It's cyclone season and there have been several so far to keep an eye on, whose remnants have headed down this way.... usually petering out to a depression, with rain but no Cold Front associated with it.

By 11am, wind had increased to around a fairly consistent 24kt, so felt 2nd reef needed to go in ... Had a slight problem getting it in, but managed it .... and almost immediately, the wind died back down to 17 kt... By 1.30pm LT/0730GMT, it was back up to 25kt... Yet another Cold Front approaching, with strong NW winds ahead of it.

Went to the mast to see why a problem with taking in reef - 3rd batten end has come adrift and is no longer connected to the car in the mast track. A small ring holds the pin in place that keeps the car attached - the ring was missing and clearly the pin had lifted sufficiently to allow the car attachment to come free - I don't know how the pin stayed in the fitting, but fortunately it did - so I need to find another item (split ring or wire maybe) to hold the pin in place when I get the chance to re-attach the batten car - I need to lower the sail a bit more, either after taking in the third reef or in calm conditions , in order to sort it out. For the moment, it's OK to leave it. (I'd puzzled over a tiny, rusty ring I found on deck over a week ago but didn't recognise where it had came from.. pity!)

With the wind consistently getting up to near 30knots, I decided to try heaving to with just the second reef in - just to see how it went. Worked fine, except the wind died down....! After staying put for about an hour, which felt like a lot longer, with wind still way down, I decided to get going.... with the third reef taken in, now, since strong wind expected... Sure enough, having decided not to stay hove-to any longer, the wind piped way up - to around 30+ soon after I sailed off. From NW to NNW.... I changed course slightly to head more off the wind in the biggish seas now running - felt a lot better but takes us more S. After the Front, winds should back to SW so I'll be able to gybe onto starboard tack and lay my course again. I don't want to end up too far S.

Soon after, I realized I'd not tensioned the running backstay ... rushed up to do it quickly... got doused with saltwater ... no jacket & no hat.... damn! TG I still had on my overtrousers! Have changed out of wet top, had some nice hot stew and put on hot air heating (Eberspacher works even in rough seas and heeled over) - feels lovely to have some warmth - things have not been drying in the damp , cold air (air temp is 15C) While it was calmer, earlier in the day, I'd taken out the backstay tensioners and re-run them - they'd got completely twisted and were becoming impossible to tension or release -another small-but-important job done!

Not sure when I'll get to my bunk - thinking I'll wait for the Front to come through, so I'm ready for the windshift from the present NNW towards SW. Being able to have the Raymarine AP in 'windvane' mode is a definite bonus - if a wind shift occurs, it beeps at me - often very irritating if not downright annoying, but in this instance, perfect for warning me of a major Frontal windshift imminent...

DMG today: 104 n.ml (with very light wind overnight and being hove-to for 1-2hours). Cape Leeuwin is 1020 n.ml. to the NE and we've 2323 n.ml. of sailing to get to Hobart - almost due E. As I get ready to post this, wind keeps gusting up to 34 knots - should reduce once Front has passed over.

Friday 9th March 2012

I've been checking over my food stores, since Australia has some thorough-going rules about which food items are allowed into the country - I'm trying to use up some of those not allowed in. Found a small tomato puree tin had leaked its contents over a large area - what a mess a small item can make, escpecially when combined with water clearly having got into the same so-called 'dry' locker beside the galley sink... Became very domestic for a time, emptying out and clearing up the mess. At least I now know exactly what's in there!

As I was working hard at winching up the mains'l while shaking out 2nd reef, an all dark, smaller albatross with broad, pale collar came close by - quite distinctive. A juvenile Sooty, it seems: " A few birds have paler scruffy collars," says my birdbook about the juveniles. And a small,white-rumped storm petrel flitted around us for a while - also very close by.

Out with permanent marker pen again - to mark more reef points on halyard and reef lines - as I did yesterday ... It's good to be in rather calmer conditions - easier to get little-but-useful jobs done!

Swell was surprisingly big overnight and this morning, at 4-5 m, although might be calming down a bit now. Pressure has been steady all day at 1022 hPa. Wind was a nice 22-24kt from dawn to mid-morning but is now mostly up and down around 15-17kt - it was seeing boatspeed down at 5 kt or less that galvanised me into shaking out that reef - that's far too slow! Weather is looking good for next few days, with winds mostly 15-20 knots, although we're almost certainly heading into unavoidable calms on Monday... All very relaxing! Greg made nearly 100 mls since yesterday and is now not too far from the 44S he's aiming for. I'm looking at being around 42S, maybe 43S. Of course, the further S one is, the less distance between lines of longitude - but the nastier the weather, being closer to the Lows' centres with their more tightly packed isobars...

Noon (GMT) DMG today: 127 n.ml. Cape Leeuwin (to ENE): 1100 n.ml.; Hobart (E): 2426 n.ml.

Wind dying... speed right down... Chilly air at 15C... Variety of birds... petrels, yellow-nosed albatross,... grey clouds... boat rolling in swell...

Thursday 8th March 2012

5pm LT (1100GMT) Just finished a fresh apple - lovely! Stood in companionway, watching a few petrels flying around... realised I've not seen any of the much larger, dark, White-chinned petrels for several days now. A Royal albatross was gliding around regally this morning! Sun is getting low in sky now - has often been getting out from behind broken clouds. It's been feeling relatively warm today.

Gazed around... tightened a bottle-screw on the port quarter.... Then noticed screws sticking out from close to end of stays'l pole,..... supposed to be holding jaw in place! Had to fetch a short screw-driver and lean out to end of pole (fortunately being stays'l, not too far out!) to tighten screws... I thought those fittings were normally rivetted in place? Will have to watch that carefully... We're almost on a dead run (DDW) just now, so don't want to have to lower pole unless essential. Felt a bit precarious with the fair-sized swell running now and us rolling about quite often! Furled in the small bit of genoa that was out - not doing anything, blanketed by other sails.

Earlier today, made good contact with Pacific Seafarers Net - Jane & Randy in Hawaii seem still to have fair copy on me - I certainly heard them fine - an amazing distance away! Tried to make contact at 0400GMT/10amLT with Czech Petr on 'Singa' but nothing heard - I think timing was wrong for 20m band - we need to try later in the day. No problem talking to Canadian Greg on 40m at 0630GMT each day - but he's less than 500 mls away. (He had 35knots of wind today, compared with my 20 knots. He's still trying hard to get further N & has had 7-8m seas - it's not nice, down where he is at 46S! Similarly, Petr has also had v.strong conditions - he's at 47S)

Just had to start genset to charge batteries - first time since dawn, so wind and sun have done well up to now. Wind had been consistently just under 20 kts overnight, but over the day today has been a bit stronger & gusting up at times, so around 20-25+ kt, giving good boat speed. Heading ESE-SE, trying to get further S, ready for High pressure area expected to drop way S early next week - guaranteeing us some calms, I think.

Time for my midday (GMT) position & weather report... every day at 1200GMT, posted to www.Winlink.org and linked in to my website to show my track there ('Travels' page) It's always interesting to see how much further I've sailed over the 24hr period... but it's now sunset, not midday, where I am - gets a bit confusing at times! I'm forever setting alarms to prevent me missing times for weatherfaxes and radio 'scheds', etc... There goes one now ....

The swell has definitely increased today - we're regularly rolling a lot. Gauging the height of swell for my report is always a challenge. It's supposed to be the average of the greatest one third of distances from crests to troughs. I imagine tall people (2m high!) standing on the water surface(!) & my stern steelwork is also about 2m high to the solar panels. I imagine looking out from upstairs windows of a house to the ground below, assuming rooms are about 3-4m (10-12ft) high so from a first-floor window, my eyes would be roughly 5m (16ft) from ground level and from a second-floor window, about 8-9m (well over 25ft) ... not unusual for swell that high here in the Southern Ocean, with or without strong wind - it comes from the deep Lows further S and W. I think I generally under-estimate heights of the really big swell we get here. The timing is from crest to crest - it's easy to feel the 'lift' as we go over a crest.

The sky was clear overhead with a layer over to the E and a thick layer of grey of cloud in the W-SW, now spreaing over this way. A mild Cold Front should be passing over quite soon (pressure has been dropping as it gets closer) and winds will then back to the SW from their present W.

(Barometric 'trend' is change in pressure over previous 3 hrs)

Today's 1200GMT report:

TIME: 2012/03/08 12:00 LAT: 40-47.45S LONG: 090-48.76E
COURSE: 115T SPEED: 5.5
WIND_SPEED: 22 WIND_DIR: WNW
SWELL_DIR: W SWELL_HT: 5.0M SWELL_PER: 7
CLOUDS: 50% BARO: 1016 TREND: 0
AIR_TEMP: 19.0C SEA_TEMP: 16.0C
COMMENT: Good sailing today but seas bigger. DMG:126 n.ml.

Now all I have to do is to get a radio connection to send this off... Bye for now!

1500 GMT POSTSCRIPT - Cold Front came through at 1420GMT!...Rain with it and wind is now from SW-SSW at 22kt so we're heading East on a beam reach at 6knots!

Wednesday 7th March 2012

A time to catch breath! Wind up and down around 18 knots all day, from WSW-W.... nice and gentle, from astern - we've been broad-reaching or running all day long - but not very fast!

Spotted that the bowline, with which I'd tied on one of the stays'l sheets in the dark yesterday morning, had somehow managed to come undone and was lying on the foredeck - re-did it while the stays'l was flying without too much trouble and without putting myself at risk. Let out a reef. Poled out the stays'l to starboard. Trimmed the sails from time to time... Watched the birds...

Cleared up in the galley and made some fresh coffee and a nice big stew - not for stormy weather coming up (quite the opposite - there'll be no wind on Friday and Sunday, it would seem!) but because I fancied .... "A litle bit of what you fancy does you good!" ... or so the song goes!

A Royal albatross came around a few times and 2-3 Yellow-nosed were nearby just before dawn.... along with a couple of soft-plumaged (grey&white) petrels. A white-rumped storm petrel flitted around over the sea surface later and I was delighted to see a Sooty albatross again.

I managed to connect with Winlink but gave up on Sailmail, using my satphone to get a data connection - it's been over 3 days since I'd lastmanaged to download emails. Then I spent a long time studying two emailsjust that came with more info on Tasmania - very useful.

If it really gets as calm as the grib files are forecasting, from a 'Big Fat High' sitting on top of us this weekend, I'll be able to do jobs on deck that I'd put 'on hold'. Stanchion-base fairleads for a start... and maybe that genoa... We'll see... One problem with light winds, especially at night, is power - I'm having to start up the little 4kW diesel genset for short periods regularly, to keep the batteries charged up.

Looking ahead to nearing Tasmania, I see that, at present, there's a High sitting to the SE giving E winds through the Bass Strait and N winds to the W of Tas - I'll keep an eye on that area from now on, since I'm not familiar with the weather patterns around there.

Chatted for a while at 0630GMT on 8297 kHz with Canadian single-hander Greg, VE0MUR, (on 'Alcidae') after the daily S.A.M.M. Net session with Graham, ZS2ABK on 14316 kHz. He was sailing due E, ahead of 7m seas and 30 knots of W wind - he, like me, doesn't like the thought of big seas on the beam when winds are strong - asking for trouble! We're hoping the seas will eventually lie down and winds go W-SW so he can get further N, to less strong conditions. Even where I am, just N of 40S, the seas have been quite big, at 4-5m, despite the lighter winds of today. Swell always takes a time to lie down but no time at all to get up!

Failed to make contact with the Pacific Seafarers Net around 0315GMT, although I could hear Fred, W3ZU, and the Net Control from time to time - don't think they heard me calling or they'd have turned their beam antennae my way. Also had a 'sched' with Czech single-hander Petr, OK4SNG, on 'Singa', at 0400GMT - but heard nothing and assumed he was busy on deck. He emailed later to say he was hove-to in storm conditions: NW8/9 - I reckon he was suffering from the same storm Greg and I had a few days' back. He's S of the Great Australian Bight, nearly 2,000 miles away from 'Nereida' and making for a waypoint S of Tasmania, about 800 miles to his E. We'll try to make contact tomorrow morning - I hope his spoken English is good - I have no Czech whatsoever!

DMG up to noon today: 121 n.ml. Distance from Cape Leeuwin: 1315 n.ml. and to Hobart: 2652 n.ml.

Tuesday 6th March 2012

Still very big seas this morning, so lurching from time to time... but much calmer, with wind generally down.

We stayed hove-to overnight - but I couldn't sleep well for thinking about the calmer conditions and getting caught by H soon. So got up - into foulies/boots/headlight/harness, armed with scissors and reel of insulating tape (to bind cut ends of line) - went up on deck & sorted out damaged stays'l sheet - cut & bound ends and tied both to clew with bowlines... Had my arm around furled stays'l for safety and stability, as well as being strapped on.... very dark, with no moon, but seas mostly not too bad. Then I got us sailing - not very fast but headed SE & far better than being hove to.

Up again at first light, to trim sails better and unfurl small bit of genoa - speed increased nicely! Heading into big 5m seas, so rather bumpy - but good to be on the move again.

On HF radio to PacSeaNet at 0300Z - Randy on Hawaii still making contact with his strong beam antenna - took my details. Still just making contact with S.African M.M.Net - Graham, ZS2ABK, comes up just after 8am his time (12 midday here!) to take positions and weather info from Greg and myself, then Greg and I often have a short chat on a 40m band, since reception better there for us. He's been hove-to, lying to his series drogue, for 4 days and is finally sailing again after winds up to 45-50kt and bigger seas than the 7m I had... We're just over 500 miles apart - reducing, since he's trying to head more N, out of the regular really strong winds down where he has been, and I'm trying to get more S to avoid being becalmed in High pressure!

Very helpful info on SE Tasmania area and anchorages etc emailed to me by Jeremy Firth of S/Y 'Rosinante' and Dover Radio... Cruising friends Steve and Dorothy on 'Adagio' are also sending good info on making landfall in Hobart - they've already booked my berth - and for me to give a talk if I get there before 3rd April...!

Cooked a nice Spanish 'tortilla' with fresh eggs, potatoes and onion last night. Since hove-to, I finished off a touch of nice red wine remaining in the damaged box. Lentil soup tonight...

No birds seen over last two two days and just one albatross and one petrel seen today, around sunset. Grey clouds, bright moon tonight - nearly full. Wind keeps varying with the clouds around. Seas down to around 4m but every so often the hull suddenly gets hit hard by the crest of larger wave.

DMG Noon-to-noon GMT: 74 n.ml. (Hove-to from 0300-2300 GMT)

Position at 1800GMT: 38d 52'S, 086d 50'E Cape Leeuwin: 1400 n.ml.; Hobart: 2775 n.ml.

Monday 5th March 2012

We made good progress NE overnight in SW-WSW winds of 30-35kt and seas around 4-5 m - surprisingly, all went fine until near 8am, when we suddenly had a sustained wind of up to 44knots for a time... and the seas got angry ... I was not a happy bunny! All due, of course, to a dark grey raincloud passing over - typical squally conditions in the SW winds behind the Cold Front.

I decided it was time to gybe the main and change course to more downwind. With the poled-out stays'l to weather, I thought we'd try sailing E- ESE, if possible, hoping that would work in the SW force7 wind and big WSW seas now running, with the option of heaving-to in mind. The other factor in my mind was that I really didn't want to go any further N - we were now at 38S, having been at 42S on Friday morning. We'd made such good speed overnight we were well N of where I'd expected to be by morning.. and a High was due to drop down on us in a few days' time, meaning we now needed to head more S, once we were out of these big seas!

Our new heading lasted just over 15 minutes! Seeing us surfing at around 15 knots a few times, on top of tumbling water, and with the memory of the 44kt squall fresh in my mind, I thought "Enough is enough - time to heave to... " The stays'l was furled in ... and we hove to fairly quickly... Seas had built to easily 7m (well over 20ft) and the wind has been highly variable over the day in the grey, rainy conditions.... from around 27 kt to 35+ kt in no time, as each raincloud came along. The period of the seas is good, at around 8-10 seconds, so they're spaced well apart - but in trying to see the trough, to gauge how big they were, I often couldn't see the bottom of it fom the very top of a wave until we were going down the backside of the wave due to their curved shape - they were definitely impressively big!!.. and areas of foam were scattered around on their surface.

It's been a bumpy day, being tossed around like a cork on the waves, but better than trying to keep going in these conditions. At one point this afternoon, I spent a time trying to locate the source of a 'clonk' I kept hearing - sounded like something very heavy moving and banging into something else. Worrying... but I finally realised it was simply the underside of our 'sugar-scoop' (where our stern is formed into steps) banging on the sea surface as we came down with a bump at the stern occasionally... Relief!

One job, I noticed late this afternoon, waiting to be done before we get going again - the stays'l sheet has chafed badly where it went through the jaw of the pole and needs attention. I thought we'd move on at dusk, but the seas and wind were still up too much - so, in the morning, hopefully. Time for a good sleep and up early...

Indicative of the good speed we were making overnight, until we hove to this morning....
DMG over the 24hr noon-to-noon (GMT) period was 114 n.ml., despite nearly 9 hrs hove to!

Sunday 4th March 2012

Morning: Plenty of bright sun in between a variety of clouds, both high and low. I'm looking for evidence of the cold front - due to pass over in the next few hours with a wind shift from WNW to WSW. We're making good speed in 25-30kt, but heading NE rather than due E or ESE - too soon to head that way, until the Low and Cold Front have passed by, together with their strong conditions.

1000 GMT/3pm LT Every now & then the wind drops - to under 25kt from 35kt ... & I wait, expectantly... no change in direction follows....grrr!! I keep checking on the wind directiion and barometer... I can't relax until the 'big event' has happened!

1200 GMT/5pm LT Overcast sky, edge of cloud layer visible ahead - still no Front come by... pressure right down at 1002 hPa (from 1015 this time yesterday) Wind 32-38kt but seas not too bad, so keeping going...

A pair of graceful grey and white petrels (Soft-plumaged) and a solitary Indian Yellow-nosed albatross seen most of the day.

1330 GMT/6.30pm LT That long-awaited Cold Front finally arrived!! ........ with torrential rain, dark grey skies and a not-too-fast (TG!) shift to SW from WNW. I thought fog had appeared - but it was just the heavy rain giving very reduced visiblity.

Half-an-hour later, wind had dropped to just under 30kt as darkness fell. We're still heading 050T - will wait until morning before gybing around and heading more E... Big swell has yet to arrive, all through tomorrow (Mon), according to weather info, so no harm staying N out of its worst maybe .... If wind stays down a bit, shouldn't be too bad.

Feeling a lot more relaxed now that's happened ... Always a worry, having had one or two nasty windshifts previously! Clearly was good to have dived N - max winds have been just under 40kt, although consistently around 35kt over the day. But with today's following seas not too big (5m, maybe 6m max) and not too close or rough, we've not had to heave to ..so far...! (Just seen wind is 36-38kt ...it's varying a lot.... not out of the wood yet! ... Later: Back down to 28-30kt!)

DMG: 142 n.ml. - strong wind gives good speed!

Some nice hot soup and catch up on sleep is the order of the day!

P.S. Strictly speaking, we passed into another time zone on moving E from 82d 30'E, which we did this afternoon, soon after 0900GMT ... so Local Time ('Nereida' time) is now GMT + 6hr

Saturday 3rd March 2012

Overnight and morning - wind light, seas fairly calm, ambling along slowly in overcast, drizzly skies, although it had been clear and starry earlier in the night. The Warm Front was passing over, as pressure fell.

Gradually, the cloud broke up to give some nice sunshine by midday and wind had increased from 15 to 20 knots - so we were sailing along very nicely at around 6 knots in seas that weren't too big - for a change (4-5m)! I unfurled as much of the genoa as I dared, to help our speed along earlier in the morning and we've been heading NE to try to evade the worst of the winds and big seas forecast for overnight and tomorrow.

While things are calm and pleasant, I've caught up with all my 'post'! All I need now is to make the connections - Sailmail very difficult still, if not impossible.

Remembered I still had some Gem squash - so enjoyed one for lunch - cut in half and boiled, with a big knob of butter added to each half afterwards- followed by some biltong (dried meat) - a S.African meal!

Winds are expected to increase over today to 30kt (presently 24 kt at 3pm), gusting to around 40kt by midnight and the Cold Front, with even stronger winds backing into the SW, is due tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) sometime - gusting to 50kt possibly, peaking overnight and into Monday morning, with seas peaking over Monday midday... maybe reaching 8-12 m, if forecast is correct... All good Southern Ocean stuff....! Heaving to looks distinctly likely.... I hope I'll be out of the worst of it...

1200GMT/5pmLT Well, the good news is that the latest weather forecast is showing us away from the very strong stuff, so my ploy of heading NE has worked out to that extent - but we're still expecting up to 40kt and seas 7-10m, so rough enough conditions for the next two days or so and heaving to still very much on the cards.... Grey clouds all over now and wind gusting up to 27 knots... Will probably have a series of short naps tonight... so will start very soon.

I made a discovery just now - wine stored in foil packs inside cardboard boxes is not as safe from damage as I'd thought. In checking that all my openings in the cabin sole, accessing bilge storage areas, were safely locked down shut, ready for the bad weather coming, I found one boxed wine totally damaged and most of its contents leaked into the bilge - pity, it was a nice wine...! Not sure why the inner didn't hold it all safely even though the outer box was damaged.

DMG: 116 n.ml. (slow overnight)

Distance to Cape Point: 2920 n.ml.; Cape Leeuwin 1680 n.ml.; Ile St Paul 170 n.ml.; Hobart 3075 n.ml. - so we're pretty well at the halfway point just now.

Cheers for now...

Friday 2nd March 2012

Having shaken out the third reef yesterday morning and then, soon after, regretting it, finding the wind was up around 25kt a lot of the day, with bigger seas than forecast often tossing us around and continuing like that into the night, I didn't sleep too well again as a result - and was nearly thrown out of my bunk at one point . So I decided to reef back down again early this morning and gybe onto port tack so as to make a course of NE for the two days, with the W winds of the morning forecast to back to WSW and then slowly veer to NW ahead of the next Front.

I felt a lot better once that was done and the boat's motion was far calmer with the SW seas dead astern. They died down somewhat over the day as well, under a blue sky early on, which slowly became partly cloudy but still with plenty of sunshine. But still we were rolling a lot at times - so no lowering of the genoa just yet...

The reason for my concern was mainly due to the nasty weather forecast - the next Cold Front is due Sunday afternoon, with building winds ahead and gales (40+ knots) & BIG seas (8-10m) following it ... especially if I stayed on my last few days' course of due E along 42S. I'm hoping that by my early change of course to NE, I'll have got far enough N to avoid the worst of the big winds and seas - although I'm still expecting to have to heave to, since the seas will surely build, as usual, as the wind increases - even at 39-40S, I'll expect winds over 30knots and seas of 5-7m or so lasting for quite a time... We'll find out soon enough!

Of course, as that all dies down, there'll be the High moving S to worry about - not to get caught out too close to its centre with no wind or a headwind... It's all a tactical game, with a lot of luck involved in the decision-making.... and the basis of that is the weather info I'm getting. I'm forever studying the grib files I download each day, trying to judge my best course of action to avoid storms or being becalmed, and I'm also getting advice from other people - which I weigh up and take into account when it suits me. Graham, ZS2ABK, gives 6-hrly forecasts each day on the radio (about to be out of range) which are helpful for trends but often underestimate wind strengths and don't normally include swell heights or intervals. Also, newly-retired Bob McDavitt sends me regular weather forecasts and suggestions using computer software and info I don't have access to - it's all 'grist for the mill' - sometimes it's correct, sometimes not, but the general trend is the most useful - a Low is on its way for sure, with strong winds, most certainly, and the Cold Front that normally comes with it always causes the winds to behave a particular way, changing direction gently or abruptly. When it happens, you know for sure - but the timing is always uncertain!

Very few birds around today, as is not unusual when it's calmer, although they did include the solitary Royal albatross that's been around for several days now, soaring as always on long, fixed wings, rarely flapping them. The birds always seem to appear in far greater numbers when the winds and seas are up!

Wind is a gentle WSW4 tonight - a Warm Front is coming through tomorrow - nothing dramatic - ahead of Sunday's Cold Front - there's the drama...

With our change of course, DMG was cut down by just 5 n.ml., compared with a straight run all the way. Today's DMG: 127 n.ml. Present position: 41 18'S, 079 06'E.