Wednesday 11th May 2011

Highlight of early today... a WHALE breached well astern ... Wow!! What a great welcome to S. Africa and Cape Town!! And a bit later, I caught sight of some dolphins - nice! Still a few shearwaters and petrels .. and a little storm petrel again... Even an albatross until surprisingly quite close to Cape Town.

Table mountain and all mountains ahead clothed in cloud/mist .... The sun tried to get out in the afternoon... a few blue patches...

By afternoon, better views of the coastline - but still lots of cloud .... The Lion's Head was eventually visible, with only a small amount of cloud around its top, but Table Mountain stayed well covered in its 'Tablecloth'!

Close to Cape Town harbour, we passed through a large stretch of water where there were amazing numbers of seals and birds in a frenzy of diving - there must have been a really big shoal of fish there!

As I passed through the main harbour breakwater, I called Port Control to announce my arrival and had permission to proceed.... as I watched a vast number - hundreds and hundreds! - of cormorants flying low over the water past us in the dusk - headed out to sea from within the harbour ... They clearly knew of the fish that were out there!

I knew that I needed to check my astern gear to see if it was working - I can't slow the boat down without using it. So as soon as I'd dropped the mains'l and secured it, I tested out going astern ..... we immediately picked up speed ahead ..... Oh dear!! No reverse gear - as I'd suspected since trying to back up on my anchor off Gough Island....!!

That left me with a problem when coming in to dock at the Royal Cape Y.C. where I was headed. I decided the only plan that might work, having already got lines and fenders ready, was to come in very slowly, in neutral, from a long way off and hope to have slowed down enough by the time we approached the fuel dock that I could step off quickly with lines and stop the forward motion - and hopefully, there would also be someone around to help (I'd emailed in advance, alerting the Club to the possible problem and giving my hoped-for ETA of around 5pm)....

So I went into neutral well before the marina entrance.... but we didn't seem to be slowing down as fast as I expected - if anything, keeping up a speed of around 3 knots - was there a current of some kind? ... surely not....? This was not going according to plan.... far too much speed .. with no reverse to help, what to do? I couldn't understand why we weren't slowing down as we should have been once in neutral.... I spotted someone near the Fuel dock who was running down to help me in, calling out to the Dockmaster as he did so - and I called out to him that I couldn't seem to slow down..... Nightmare....! I tried to bring us really close in to the the dockside and threw the bow line which was caught by Alan and secured ..... but we still had too much forward momentum and we didn't slow down so very fast, the rope being only partly-secured and giving way somewhat.... our anchor caught in the metalwork ahead - TG!! We finally came to a stop, with Dockmaster Ian ('Chunky'!!) holding our bows off to prevent damage and me stepping off smartly to secure the stern line before we swung out too much - what a way to end my RTW!!!! It turned out that Alan (of 'Moonshine') knew from my website log report of yesterday that I was hoping to be coming in around 5pm - Thank you for being there, Alan - saved the day...!

I decided to leave celebratory drinks to later - tidied up the cockpit, checked the mooring lines, made a final log entry and went for a lovely, hot, long shower - bliss!! Then over to the Bar where there were a lot of people I knew well from last year (no Wednesday night racing tonight but it was still a sociable evening for them). Once they realized I'd just made landfall, it was drinks all round, starting with some celebratory 'bubbly' ... and more throughout the rest of the evening.... Very enjoyable welcome ...

Thursday 12th May

I have no memory of making my way back to the boat, although I clearly did, since I was woken up around midday (the plan was to be moved to another berth this morning) - "Go back to sleep!" Ian called out to me - I did!! Having only had 3-4 hours sleep the night before landfall, and the excitement of coming in to land at the end of my passage from the Falklands to conclude my RTW, added to a few too many drinks last night ... I finally got up around 3pm - to find the sky was clear and blue and the sun was hot!! I'm looking to do a lot of repairs now - mostly left over from my knockdown - before deciding what to do/ where to go next.... Just now, I really don't know .... but there don't seem to be many realistic options....

(Listen to the 'H2O Show' on BBC Radio Solent tomorrow night 7pm BST- 'live' interview, by satphone, with Geoff Holt. If you can't listen, it will be posted to the www.bbc.co.uk website under 'H2O Show')

Tuesday 10th May 2011

Great surprise! .... Found a flying fish (and a squid) on deck soon after dawn!! Didn't think we were far north enough, in warm enough waters, for flying fish ....

Had to motor-sail from 6am - just a touch of engine-power to help make sure we arrive in daylight on Wednesday, rather than arrive after dark or wait overnight for daylight entrance on Thursday morning... Still not sure if my astern gear is working or not - I'll find out inside harbour, before I make for the marina entrance. Might need all my fenders ... and a very slow approach (preferably with a nice headwind!) ....should work out OK.... especially if someone on shore to catch my lines to stop me!! Wind now only 7-8 knots and boatspeed 4 kt - just not quite fast enough, since need to average 5 kt if to arrive before dark.... Hopefully, we can finish with a nice sail - that would be nice...!

Midday
3 white-chinned petrels nearby and one yellow-nosed albatross soaring in distance on long, dark, fixed wings. Sunny with quite a lot of cloud.

Rolling about a lot at times in long swell from SSE - partly due to having boom well out with wind from well abaft the beam.... Still motor-sailing due E in 10 knots of W wind ... not a lot of help in making a good speed towards CT! Just checked fuel level, yet again - plenty there...!

1400GMT report:

LAT: 33-58S LONG: 015-45E COURSE: 089T SPEED: 5.9
WIND_SPEED: 7 WIND_DIR: W WAVE_HT: 2.0M WAVE_PER: 7
SWELL_DIR: SSE SWELL_HT: 4.0M SWELL_PER: 9
CLOUDS: 60% BARO: 1010 TREND: 0

24hr DMG: 110 n.ml. Distance to Cape Town (RCYC): 134 n.ml.

3pm
I can't get over how warm it is - I've discarded my thick fleece trousers and a top layer - too hot! Downside of sunshine and warmth is I seem to have lost my faifhful birds - no more great shearwaters and only the one albatross seen earlier... Did see a flock of birds (prions?) busy nearby a short while ago - they'd clearly found some fish - and a gannet (or similar-looking black and white booby...) flew past.

Enjoyed the last of the fresh eggs, with fresh coffee afterwards, in a sunny cockpit... reflecting on my last few months of sailing... Would have been so nice to have been closing on the B.C. coast right now, as intended .... Have to admit that's been a huge disappointment to me... but sailing is so often unpredictable - that's one of the things I've always liked about it, although it can also get frustrating at times...... I've been celebrating pre-landfall today in my own way... enjoying being at one with the ocean & storing up good memories!

Quite a lot of shipping now - have 2-3 boats near me most of the time - mostly cargo vessels headed around S. Africa to the Indian Ocean, some to Singapore and beyond.

7pm
Always good to watch the sun setting although nothing extraordinary tonight. Clear sky overhead, line of grey cloud on the horizon...and the bright, waxing half-moon high up. Possibly my last sunset at sea for a while, since I'm hoping by this time tomorrow to have berthed at the Royal Cape Y.C. in Cape Town harbour. Wind down to 5 knots from NW - if it were a bit stronger, we could sail nicely...! Hopefully, as it veers more to the N tonight, it will strengthen.

Monday 9th May 2011

11am

Bright, sunny day, almost clear blue sky overhead - but low, misty cloud lurking on horizon - waiting to drop as fog come nightfall? Seeing ships regularly now on A.I.S. - none too close but two this morning two ships (to Ningbo - where's that? China? - and Singapore) passed just 2ml and 3ml away - saw their lights on the horizon close by.

Still not had b'fast - got sidetracked, sitting in the warm (!) sunshine, watching the birds around - and trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to get good photos of them ..... SO difficult to frame them!! So often, as the shutter clicks, they wheel off in the opposite direction... While watching the Yellow-nosed albatross (2), Great shearwaters (lots!) and White-chinned petrels (2), I suddenly spotted a small, white-rumped storm petrel, flitting about as they do, really close to the water. Going to need to spend a long time at the computer, going through my shots - no doubt deleting most of them .... but hopefully, there'll be one or two worthwhile ones! It would be nice to have a record of my companions on this passage!

Having to motor-sail and the wind has just gone back into SE from SSE earlier - only 7 kt so not a lot of help from the sails - but we live in hope.... The swell is really big from SE, at easily 4-5m if not more, but well-spaced at around 8 seconds, so majestic... powerful... but not threatening! (LATER: Wind down to 4-5 kt at 11.20)

Time for a late breakfast before the S.African M.M.Net soon.

1400 GMT report:

LAT: 33-57S LONG: 013-33E COURSE: 091T SPEED: 5.4
WIND_SPEED: 14 WIND_DIR: SSW SWELL_DIR: SSE SWELL_HT: 5.0M SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 5% BARO: 1009 TREND: -1

Distance to Cape Town 244 n.ml. 24hr DMG 62 n.ml. - made a right-angled turn...

4.30pm Sailing along beautifully at close to 6 knots under sunny, blue sky.... with birds for company... no motor... What could be nicer.....? Just had the last Ushuaia grapefruit - lovely and juicy inside still, after two months.

Wind will probably die and veer further W soon (presently SSW-SW 15 kt) - but for the moment this is just great! Have been sitting in a warm cockpit and enjoying it all!!

Later - Well I just gybed the mains'l and goose-winged the stays'l.... On a very broad reach in wind from W at just 12 knots. Still sailing nicely .... not very fast, but good enough to take us into Cape Town by Wed afternoon, hopefully. Beautiful night sky - bright stars, Milky way strewn across, crescent moon, path of bright moonlight to the boat across the water.... lovely sailing... NOT cold...! An excellent way to end a long passage - pity the wind might well die further tomorrow and overnight into Wednesday for landfall - we can but hope the wind stays up!!

Sunday 8th May 2011

Thanks to the many people who have sent very kind emails with good wishes after I 'closed the circle' on Friday - definitely helped to buoy me up, despite the still very 'boisterous' and frustrating conditions which have not allowed me to get much closer to Cape Town over the past day, with such strong (20-24kt) ESE winds!!

Sun has been shining this morning, which is nice, but I'm looking at my distance from CT - presently about 300 miles. The N-flowing current, combined with heading very close-hauled into big seas giving low boat speed, means that I'm only able to make a course of around 020-030T at best, whereas CT is on a bearing of 086T - almost due East of here...

The only good weather news is that the Low off Cape Town tomorrow is set to move slightly S and then dissipate, giving rise to light SW-W winds over tomorrow and then to light variables, mainly from W, for the next few days. So, hopefully, despite the still-present swell, I may soon be able to sail (or motor-sail) towards Cape Town - and a delayed landfall on Wednesday .....

1400 GMT report:

LAT: 34-20S LONG: 012-23E COURSE: 025T SPEED: 3.8
WIND_SPEED: 19 WIND_DIR: 100 SWELL_DIR: SE SWELL_HT: 5.0M SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 80% BARO: 1017 TREND: -2
COMMENT: 24hr DMG: 96n.ml. Dist.to CT 302 n.ml.

3.30pmGenoa just blew out... have had to furl it in - using just staysail now - but wind set to diecdown soon and until in to Cape Town - possibly no wind on last two days anyway ... so will wait and not try to mend it in present bumpy conditions for time being - It's a long rip all down from halfway...

5.30pm
What a to-do!! .....The wind just went around and around in circles - I couldn't figure out what to do... whatever I did, it was wrong each tIme - because the wind promptly changed.... and not just once .... several times.... Quite weird!! 23-24knots of shifting and circling wind.. There were some odd-looking long lines of grey cloud stretching from a point on the western horizon ... we weren't under but more between two long lines of cloud - I wondered if they were the cause of my problems... Lasted for well over an hour and had me quite concerned...!

Later: Wind dying down and slowly veering, as forecast .... Waiting for wind to drop further and go more S before trying to motor-sail towards Cape Town ... Deliberately not increasing sail so as to stay sailing slowly and not go further north than 34S - latitude of Cape Town. If wind dies right down, may have to motor last stretch .... grrr!!

Saturday 7th May 2011 - Rough seas continue with strong winds from ESE

Wind got up to 27kt at 3.30am ... then finally down to 19kt in a long lull at 5.30am.. rough seas .... back to my bunk for some sleep...

9am
Lovely bright sunshine, with lots of broken white cloud. ... and plenty of birds, as yesterday - but many more! Including the inquisitive, immature black-browed albatross, with grey 'collar' and dark tip to bill, seen two days ago. Along with the pair of adults, that makes three soaring around majestically, among all the other birds close by...!

Close-hauled in ESE true wind of 23 kt, dropping to 20 kt every now and then. We're banging often into the frequent, big (4m, 4 sec) seas - so not a very comfortable ride! Seas crashing regularly over the decks ...

We're not having much choice of course - can't do much better than what we're making now - varies a bit due to the wind swinging around somewhat and the seas often knocking us off course, but we're averaging 035T which is OK. Hoping the Low will eventually allow us to head towards Cape Town before we get too far N - otherwise we'll have to heave to and wait it out...

1400 GMT report:

LAT: 35-43S LONG: 011-25E COURSE: 030T SPEED: 5.7
WIND_SPEED: 24 WIND_DIR: ESE SWELL_DIR: ESE SWELL_HT: 4.0M SWELL_PER: 4
CLOUDS: 100% BARO: 1029 TREND: -1

24hr DMG: 107 n.ml. Direct distance to Cape Town: 363 n.ml. ETA 10/11th May.

Evening:
Not much change from earlier - we're still banging into the seas, close-hauled, making 030T at around 5 knots and getting tossed around a lot... makes for slow speed but so far wind strength not too bad... around 20-23 kt, dropping to 16-18 kt from time to time... Expect conditions to worsen overnight and during tomorrow, before easing slowly overnight Sun/Mon.

Friday 6th May 2011 Difficult weather ahead - but today we finally completed a circumnavigation - we 'closed the loop'....!

10.30am
Been spending an age downloading and looking over weather info and options and plotting points/routes on chart to see Implications.... none very good or pleasant!! Basically, although it's pretty rough now, it's going to get even rougher - ESE gale is very likely, offshore from Cape Town on 7th-8th May (later Sat into Sun) with 5-8m seas possible.... Even trying to avoid that area means a bit of a detour to the north and west of my preferred course and still probably getting strong winds, although hopefully not as strong, and bigger seas than at present but, again, hopefully not as big as in the gale area..... All the result of a Low coming S down the coast and squashing against the High I'm in at present, which will have moved further S.

I've decided to go for the less severe option, expecting even then to have to heave to again sometime tomorrow and overnight into Sunday possibly, when the winds increase and/or swells get too much for comfort.... or simply to avoid going too far north. It should only add less than a day, frustrating though that is...!! To add into the equation is the fact of the strong N-setting Benguela current - up to 6knots, I've been informed. Even though the 6kt sounds to me like an extreme (an eddy, maybe?) the current is still strong enough not to be ignored... The prevailing wisdom is always to approach Cape Town from the SW so as not to be swept too far N by it ... My ETA into Cape Town will hopefully be no later than 11th May... all depending on the exact weather conditions encountered, the route I end up taking and how long I heave to, if I do...

Time for a late breakfast after a peek up on deck to how we're doing and to see what birds are around ..... I think I've exhausted looking at all possible permutations and combinations of options on my route....!

Around 11am GMT, under a bright sunny sky, witnessed by a pair of circling albatross, several petrels and a pair of shearwaters, we crossed our December 2nd 2009 path south from Lanzarote towards Cape Town - so we've now well and truly circled the globe .... from Cape Town, around Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas, past Cape Leeuwin, through Bass Strait and Cook Strait to Kauai, on to Cape Flattery (Pacific US/Canada), S from Victoria, B.C. to Cape Horn, to Ushuaia, on to Falklands, .... and back now towards Cape Town - weather gods permitting .....

1400 GMT report:

LAT: 37-08S LONG: 010-02E COURSE: 040T SPEED: 5.5
WIND_SPEED: 20 WIND_DIR: SE SWELL_DIR: S SWELL_HT: 4.0M SWELL_PER: 4
BARO: 1030 TREND: 0
COMMENT: Wind killed to 12kt by cloud, then picked up again to 20kt! Distance to Cape Town 453 n.ml.

Just around sunset, we left the rainclouds behind and the sky overhead cleared completely ... to show a lovely crescent moon hanging above the sea.... some bright stars.... and the wind even died down a bit for a time, giving some relaxing sailing in less swell, for a change! The swell seems to be mainly from the
SE, making us lurch often when a crest hits, but also sometimes from the SW (astern).

The wind should stay around 20kt or so now, until around sunset tomorrow, when it's expected to start increasing to give strong conditions overnight and over Sunday- I could well heave to then to maintain position and/or make life more bearable if it's getting too rough! We'll see then what that Low gets up to... If I'm really lucky, the weather people have got it all wrong and that Low will dissipate or head S out of my way quickly so I can get in to Cape Town more directly ... and sooner... (In my dreams!)

Thursday 5th May Decided to heave to this morning - for sleep!

Well, the expected Front passed by around 3am, as shown by a fairly quick wind shift. Heavy rain ahead of it just before 2am, backing of the wind from NW to SSW and then slowly on to S.... It kept on raining and the seas were really big and rough, with swell from more than one direction. I gybed the sails once the wind had backed enough for us to keep on the same course without a problem, so we're now on starboard tack - which we haven't been for a long while! It's the first heavy rain for ages - so couldn't really complain at having to don foulies several times over to go on deck for sail trimming..!!

I found it very difficult to sleep overnight, with the AP misbehaving and in the rough conditions, with speeds of 7.5-8kt and a beam wind consistently around 23 kt, gusting 29kt. So eventually, after looking over the weather forecasts for the next few days (NOT looking good for my approach to Cape Town, with several days of strong easterlies and very big swells forecast), I decided to heave to .... and despite really rolly conditions in the short but large swell, I finally managed to sleep for a couple of hours until my 11.30am radio 'sched' with the S.African M.M.Net.... and then slept some more...

By dusk, having stood in the companionway for quite a time watching my albatross (immature, inquisitive, black-browed among several others), petrel and shearwater companions flying around this 'island in the sea', the now SSE winds to have abated somewhat, so I got underway again - heading more downwind, so a slightly better 'ride' with the seas, still big, more on our quarter...

There's not much point just now in making too much speed directly for Cape Town because of the headwinds forecast close by for over 8-9th May. I might need to heave to again, just to let that system pass me by - assuming it doesn't 'stall' and stay around for a few days ... I hope not!

1400GMT report:

LATITUDE: 38-16S LONG: 007-59E COURSE: 070T SPEED: 1.5
WIND_SPEED: 24 WIND_DIR: SSE SWELL_DIR: S SWELL_HT: 4.0M SWELL_PER: 4
CLOUDS: 100% BARO: 1020 TREND: 3

Hove to.

24hr DMG: 123 n.ml. Distance to Cape Town 569 n.ml.

Wednesday 4th May2011 - Excellent sailing - but getting bumpy again. Another Front expected overnight...

3pm
A dull grey start, but by midday, all cloud had cleared away to give lovely sunshine ..but a lumpy sea - swell from three different directions - long slow from WSW, and shorter, rougher swells from N and WNW !! When they combine, the seas hump up and we really get knocked about if caught by one of those...

Two albatross seen this morning, .... a Yellow-nosed and a BIG Royal..... Otherwise, several white-chinned petrels and Gt shearwaters and occasional prions - I think we may have lost the spectacled petrels - too far from Tristan, possibly.

We've been making good speed - often 6.5-7 knots - always nice to see! But seas have definitely got rougher now with the stronger wind and mix of swells - and with the next Front expected soon after midnight, there'll be the usual backing of the wind from NW to SW - hopefully, not too suddenly!

Report for 1400GMT:

LAT: 38-44S LONG: 005-26E COURSE: 078T SPEED: 6.4
WIND_SPEED: 18 WIND_DIR: NW SWELL_DIR: NW SWELL_HT: 3.0M
CLOUDS: 5% BARO: 1016 TREND: -4 AIR_TEMP: 18.0C

24hr DMG:150n.ml. - nice! Distance to Cape Town: 691 n.ml.

The sun set well before 5pm - definitely feels like winter when the day is short like that, but soon (once we''ve crossed 007:30E - probably around sunrise tomorrow) we're due to change the local time by one hour - forward to GMT+1 - so sunset will be nearer 6pm LT! With such a clear sky, suddenly there was Orion hanging brightly, if upside down, in the western sky.

The autopilot keeps going down - from 'auto' it has frequenrtly dropped into 'standby' with hardly a sound today.... useful! And when in 'Track' mode towards our next waypoint, it has several times decided the route has finished or it has 'no data' - with vigorous beeping noises - or it has simply decided, yet again, quietly to drop into 'standby' .... I'm usually alerted by sails flapping like mad if no beeping has sounded and I've been busy, away from the instruments..... Means I might well have to sleep at the chart table to be on hand to deal with problems immediately...... lovely thought...! In fact, I was thinking anyway that I'd have to stay awake quite a lot tonight, to keep an eye out for the Front to pass by with what could be a sudden backing of the wind, meaning we'd have to gybe to stay on course.... Think I'll try to get in some short naps this evening....

Tuesday 3rd May 2011

Had an excellent sleep after late/disturbed night.... Was up for 8am check around and log entry, didn't bother to set alarm for 11.40am 'sched' with S.African M.M.Net, thinking I didn't need to - and slept right through until 1.30pm! Clearly needed it! So had a (very!) late breakfast as I entered details in 1400 GMT position report:

LAT: 39-08S LONG: 002-16E COURSE: 081T SPEED: 6.3
WIND_SPEED: 11 WIND_DIR: WNW
SWELL_DIR: WNW SWELL_HT: 2.0M
CLOUDS: 98% BARO: 1029 TREND: -2
AIR_TEMP: 17.0C

We're East of Greenwich Meridian now - local time is GMT. Distance to Cape Town: 839 n.ml.

3.20 p.m.
Grey and murky now but it's been nice to see plenty of birds around - as usual.... except they're slightly different ones today, apart from the usual group of Great Shearwaters - very gregarious, often doing 'synchronised flying'(!) or resting on the water together in groups. A Black-browed albatross - thought it was Yellow-nosed until I saw the bright yellow bill - unmistakable, .... a Cape Petrel flew around us.... a big brown skua came by and had a good close look around .... a few prions...

Still very little wind, so have been motoring gently when wind right down, to help us sail along in the increased apparent wind.... It's highly variable at the moment, sometimes 6-7 kt, other times 10-11, and occasionally, as just now, briefly up to 12-13kt... with direction anything from NNW to WNW. The wind should be increasing from now on , as we get a Front arriving over 5/6th, followed by a High again... but this time I'm likely to be headed by quite strong East winds, since likely to find the H to S of me - and an almighty deep, deep depression, with 9m/30ft swell, to the SW and heading this way to complicate matters - just as I'm trying to finish...!!! That's sailing for you! Murphy's alive and kicking.... and always laughing at us...!

Nice to have motor off for peace and quiet ... speed not too bad - clearly have a good current helping us along since when wind is only 6-7 knots, we're making around 5 knots SOG! Boatspeed then is supposedly around 3 knots - but I've my doubts about that display - ever since being hove-to on Saturday, with instrument problems, the boat speed display seems way down - maybe the calibration factor got changed/re-set? Boat speed showing as too low would make system think we've a lot of current, of course...!

7.30pm
Just finished my meal, as we sail sweetly along at 6.6 kt, in around 12 kt of wind from NW: ham and egg, fried potato and sweetcorn. Followed by mandarin - out of a tin, but I just fancied and remembered I had one or two stashed away - so dug it out - lovely and refreshing! One last egg left.... They were clearly very fresh (and unchilled!) when I bought them in Ushuaia, so just turning the box in which they're kept, every few days, works fine for keeping them for a long time, out of the fridge. Still several potatoes and apples from Canada left.... mostly OK, although the potatoes are all beginning to sprout well now...!

This time last year ... I was in the Tasman Sea on Day 56 from Cape Town to Nelson, New Zealand, direct . Arrived Nelson on 10th May 2010 (with repairs needed!), after a 63-day passage via the Bass Strait- that's exactly the day that I've been hoping to make landfall in Cape Town this year! (But the weather gods may have other plans.... That depression to the SW looks nasty and the High will definitely head me....)

About to settle down to email-answering - have lots just now... Keeping an eye on the wind (as always!) - probably have to reduce the (full) genoa before sleeping tonight.

LATER: Wind often up to 20kt, close-hauled, reefed down somewhat, seeing the occasional ship on AIS ... nothing too close ...... a dark night with overcast sky and no moon!

Monday 2nd May 2011 - relaxing and sunny....

2pm

We're slap bang right in the middle of a High - pressure has been 1031 since early morning - can't get much higher...! While getting ready (watching the swell, estimating the cloud cover) to make my daily weather/position report, I've been sitting out in the sunny cockpit with fresh coffee, watching a black-browed albatross never far away and often circling us, the dark of its wings extending across its otherwise white back, white underparts except for broad dark edges to its underwings... black tail ... and a bright yellow, very long, cruel-looking beak ... belying its nature - very docile, I was told by John of Gough Island.... A soaring great shearwater, a flitting, water-hugging storm petrel and occasional fast-moving prion are also not far away. All very pleasant....

If I ignored the motor sound, I could pretend we're sailing gently, with full genoa and mains'l, on a broad reach - but with 4 knots of apparent wind from abaft the beam, we wouldn't be moving at around 5.5 kt SOG, as we are.

I cooked fresh potatoes and onion with ham and peas last night and earlier today had an Okanagan apple ... I'm trying not to make landfall in Cape Town with any of my 'fresh' Canadian apples and potatoes still unused on board from last October...! (Also treated myself to some home-made marmalade on rye with breakfast - mmm!)

We're going to be stuck in this High for another day or so - and winds won't get strong until Tues/Wed, ahead of a Front expected over Wed night into Thur, but not for long... a Low coming down from W. coast of Africa is going to push a High S, to land up slightly S of us, giving us SE winds - heading us on Friday, possibly... But that's some days away still - so all may change by then... It's a waiting game....!

... Time to go and top up the main diesel tank.... Swell is big but long....

1400GMT report:

LAT: 39-30S LONG: 000-39W COURSE: 083T SPEED: 5.4
WIND_SPEED: 6 WIND_DIR: SW SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 4.0M SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 10% BARO: 1030 TREND: -1

24hr DMG 123n.ml. Distance to Cape Town: 975 n.ml. Greenwich Meridian just over 25 n.ml away!

10pm

Just having some soup I made earlier today, after finishing with refuelling the main tank. Got rather more complicated than expected when I found the in-line 12V pump I normally use was not working - took me a time to go through the wiring & switches with a multimeter and connect wires to bypass a problematic, rusty-looking switch before deciding it was the pump itself that had also given up the ghost. So that meant digging out a spare pump, finding tubing to fit and hose-clamps to match before finally getting to the cockpit locker to refuel - which got rather messy....! That was partly because the pump I was using needed priming each time I started a jerrycan afresh (Yuck! How I hate sucking on the empty end of a diesel tube...!!) and was clearly not as strong as the job needed. So I ended up having to finish by pouring out the last part of the fuel from several jerry cans. I was going to leave doing it all until morning and daylight, but checking out the weather again, felt that it was possible the present very calm weather might disappear soon, because of a nasty system to the SW of here - which is already affecting us with the big swell I've seen all day long - and which gave me a bit of a problem when emptying out the last of the diesel.

The clear sky of this afternoon and lovely starry night soon after sunset have now disappeared - the cloud ahead of the imminent Front has started to come in and few stars are now visible. The SW wind died right down and then the wind came in from the N-NNW - so we're now on port tack once more, having been on starb'd tack all day. (Pressure is even higher than earlier, at 1033 hPa.) The wind is now only 5 kt from NW, so we're still motor-sailing, but soon it should increase enough to be able to cut the engine and sail properly.

We crossed the Greenwich Meridian around 8pm tonight.... we're E longitude now and S but just E of Greenwich!

Time to get some sleep while it's still calm ... Goodnight!

Sunday 1st of May 2011 ....... Happy May Day to one and all!

9am Blue sky with fluffy little cumulus clouds in lines along wind direction - just like 'Trade wind' clouds. A big, long swell - easily 4m or more high and far apart (9 sec period) - must have come from a deep Low to the W. Wind keeps varying, as does the generally very helpful current (beginning of the Benguela current? It certainly feels cold and damp inside the boat...).

Big flock of prions wheeling around .. and among the other birds, an enormous Tristan (Wandering) albatross - it has a wingspan of over 11ft!

Been trying to connect on radio for ages to do emailing but no joy, despite what look like lots of good possibilities - propagation clearly not good just now! It's amazing how many people turn a blind eye to the plea at the end of many of my emails NOT to return my email (and explanatory footnote) with their reply, hitting the 'reply' button regardless - with propagation so awful just now, the last thing I need is a short reply, perhaps, with my email and a long footnote (added by the central server) attached to it....!! And it also takes a lot of battery power to operate the radio .... so just trying to get connected often runs my batteries right down - I had to start the genset today, with the light winds not giving us any windpower input to the house batteries.

1400 GMT report (Links to maps on 'Travels' page on website):

LAT: 39-45S LONG: 003-17W COURSE: 084T SPEED: 4.5
WIND_SPEED: 12 WIND_DIR: SW SWELL_DIR: WSW SWELL_HT: 4.0M
CLOUDS: 3% BARO: 1024 TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 17.0C

Gorgeous, sunny 1st of May! Distance to Cape TownT: 1097 n.ml.

Later in the day, grey rainclouds gathered to W (astern) and to S, but although some came overhead, we managed to avoid the showers - they stayed visible but in the distance.. Can't complain, with the lovely clear blue sky we'd had for several hours before that.

Wind died even more near evening - to 7-8 knots - and was WSW-SW - so coming from well abaft the beam ... I tried to goosewing the genoa... didn't really work without being poled out, mainly because of the big W swell still coming towards us,which kept making us roll a lot... but as I played with the sheet winch, a jazzy Cape Petrel came flying past - so distinctive in its black & white plumage....

When we dropped to 2.5kt boatspeed, time had come to turn on the engine and motorsail. The wind is forecast to stay very light for at least another day or so, as we pass through an area of High pressure which has come over us, in between the Lows.... that's the way of things, hereabouts .. either lots... or little...! I've checked our diesel - plenty to be able to turn on the 'iron sail' whenever I fancy, to avoid flopping about in the light wind and calms we're going to get a lot of, for sure, in the next week or so, according to all the forecasts..... Tomorrow, if the swell has died down a bit (it stayed up all day long and we were rolling about a lot), I'll be able to refuel the main tank from the jerrycans I carry.... A fairly easy task with the filler cap right beside the cockpit locker which houses the jerry cans, especially using the little 12V pump I have ready for the transfer, meaning I don't need to hump the cans around.... I had an enjoyable day, in fact, shaking out reefs and playing around with the sails in the shifting light winds and sunshine - 'messing about on the water' .... the song always comes to mind, it's so apt!

The wind is now (11pm) SE 6kt so we're now close-reaching and having to fall off our course a bit in order to keep up a decent speed and not luff up...

I had to disconnect the plotter late this afternoon - I noticed it was misbehaving - undid all connections, cleaned them up, re-connected ... now behaving fine...! An easy, if time-consuming, fix!!

Saturday 30th April 2011 - SUCCESS! Fixed the instrument problem - all working OK... after heaving to in rough seas overnight...

I was feeling a lot happier by this afternoon - with all instruments working fine that were not yesterday.... (except for VHF radio - transmitting fine, but not receiving - John, on Gough Island, said sounds as though handset must be faulty ... Was fine when I left Falklands...grrr!)

By yesterday evening, the winds had increased to around 30 knots and with them the seas had got up quite a lot, regularly catching us and tossing us about. Our course was beam on to the 4m seas and it just got to be too much - so I thought I'd try running off more downwind - at least to put the seas more on our quarter. But even that didn't feel good, surfing with most waves and still being hit by some - they were getting pretty rough.

So, with the night hardly begun, and barometer by now well down and still dropping (1013 at 11pm compared with 1020 at 2pm), I decided to try heaving to - remembering it hadn't worked too well the last time but wanting to experiment with suggestions I'd received. Well, it worked far better!! I hove to with just mains'l, having furled in the genoa and stays'l, helm to windward and boom initially well sheeted out. Very slowly, bit by bit, and pausing each time to see the effect, I sheeted in until we were hove to with bows pointing up well into the seas, boatspeed zero... then I went down for a good sleep!!

In the morning, I received a very helpful email reply from Robert Galley in Simons Town to my request for advice on tackling the instrument malfunction - he's very good at troubleshooting and knew my boat and instruments well from my stop in Cape Town last year. Being hove-to turned into a useful state to be in - no instruments or autopilot were needed! I decided to stay put and try to sort things out. Following his advice, I eventually solved the problem (after removing/changing over lots of connections to four instruments, changing one instrument completely for a spare I had available - TG! - and another email sent and received in the meantime!). It turned out to be caused by a faulty data connection at the Speed instrument together with a dodgy positive power feed to the Depth instrument (which supplies power to all 3 basic instruments, Wind included)..... Suddenly, all the instruments were displaying everything they should and working perfectly - so, for instance, my autopilot will be able to work in 'windvane mode' if I expect the wind to shift overnight and want to avoid tacking or gybing.... very handy!

I'd had breakfast with lovely fresh-brewed coffee before starting on the instruments in the morning and was now ready to sail off - by 2.30pm we were underway again, headed just N of E on the Great Circle route to Cape Town in good SW winds but fair-sized seas still, in company with a lot of birds, all of which probably breed on Gough Island:
A pair of dark brown skuas - big, heavy-looking, 'flappy' birds - all brown, except for pale flashes along middle of wings, above and below - clearly not the ocean gliders I've mainly been seeing... "Aggressive!", John told me.
A tiny storm petrel - all dark with white rump - flitting about , hovering right on the water surface, legs dangling, picking out something from the water from time to time...
A flock of graceful prions - coming so very close I could see them really clearly... and a pair of Yellow-nosed albatross - curious, coming close often until well after sunset, for a good look at "Nereida" and me!
Spectacled, white-chinned and Atlantic petrels ......... and, of course, great shearwaters ... Such a variety of birds....

1400 GMT report:

LAT: 40-02S LONG: 005-57W COURSE: 340T SPEED: 1.7
WIND_SPEED: 19 WIND_DIR: WSW SWELL_DIR: W SWELL_HT: 3.0M
CLOUDS: 100% BARO: 1015 TREND: 2 AIR_TEMP: 16.0C

Distance to Cape Town: 1221 n.ml.

Friday 29th April

It was so disappointing to have to leave Gough Island last night - but I had no choice. Just imagine..... strong onshore winds pushing us into the rocky shore nearby, with the anchor not set because when I tried to go astern to do so, we seemed instead to be moving forward (... problem due to the prop-wrap I seemed to have got a while back?). I tried gently several times to go astern.... it just wasn't working out and depth was a problem - if I moved too far away from shore, we 'd end up in too great a depth of water for the 100m of chain I had available - as it was, I lowered it all and then had to keep a careful eye on our position all the time we were there - a bit of a worry....

If the wind had been from the usual NW-W, we might have got away with staying overnight (with an anchor alarm & watch) - the bay is completely protected from that direction by high cliffs, with mountains behind, and the water would have been totally calm - but not last night..... I needed more time to fix the windsteering rudder in place securely - and just didn't have it.... Very frustrating, having succeeded, to my surprise, in getting it onto the stock without too much trouble - but then finding it very difficult to stay safely onboard while I held the heavy rudder from slipping down and simultaneously tried to locate the inner hole for the pin... not normally a big problem, but with the wave action, it just wasn't happening .... The only good thing about it all was the water temperature (nothing like as cold as I was expecting) and my waterproof seaboots and foulies (protecting me from the frequent water over them)!!

Feeling quite tired, but pausing to fix something to eat (I'd had very little all day), I raised the mains'l and anchor and got underway... Still lots of birds around, even overnight. and a brilliantly clear starry sky, with Milky Way sprinkled across it, a short while later. Conditions started so light and we made so little speed (wind NW 9 kt, dropping to 5kt!) that I started up the motor to get away from the island, but within an hour, out of the lee of the island and the wind having veered back into the N, we were sailing well without it. John said they had 25 to 30 knots at the base nearby overnight, but we had a good sail, in slowly increasing N winds to below 20 kt until late afternoon, the seas gradually increasing with the wind, becoming quite lumpy and rough. I reduced sail quite a bit before dark, ready for possible 30kt winds as a Front passes by soon...

The big problem of the day has turned into instrumentation - a main display at the chart table has stopped its display - meaning it no longer shows what wind we have .... nor depth, speed or position - although fortunately, a separate (AIS) instrument is giving position along with SOG & COG - TG for independent back-ups!! And I can't use the autopilot in 'wind-vane' mode or read off the True windspeed (from the cockpit wind instrument) because the boatspeed and SOG info isn't being sent around the system ..... Fortunately, we're making do OK with what info we have - and managing roughly to keep on course for Cape Town.... TG also, that the AP has a fluxgate compass linked into it, so that it has the independent info it needs to steer a course.... It just all means that life has become a little more complicated if we're to make Cape Town OK!

1400GMT report:

LAT: 40-13S LONG: 007-32W COURSE: 085T SPEED: 6.4
WIND_SPEED: 19 WIND_DIR: N SWELL_DIR: N SWELL_HT: 3.0M
BARO: 1020 TREND: -2

24hr DMG (despite stop at Gough Island): 110 n.ml. Distance to Cape Town: 1294 n.ml.

Tonight: Wind has got up to 23-27kt (apparent), gusting higher, it's raining hard (that Front!) and seas are up to a good 4m or so - it's life in the rough, bumpy, fast lane again overnight...!

Thursday 28th April 2011

9am - 24ml away from Gough Island, headed to Quest Bay on E side from around N end, since high cliffs on S end and very high mountains (2,500-3000m) all over island - so big wind shadow from NNW winds. Definitely a mountainous place!
Just put heater on for a bit - feels cool and damp in the boat -sea temp must have gone down...

10am
Just caught first glimpse of Gough Island only 8 miles away - wreathed in high white clouds with fog bank all around ... one high peak showing through a break in the clouds...

Position report for 1400GMT:

LAT: 40-16S LONG: 009-56W COURSE: 095T SPEED: 5.8 (motor-sailing)
WIND_SPEED: 8 WIND_DIR: WNW SWELL_DIR: NNW SWELL_HT: 3.0M
BARO: 1028 TREND: 0
COMMENT:. Passing N end of Gough Island.

24hr DMG: 145 n.ml. (almost all under sail - so another good day's run!) To Cape Town: 1404 n.ml

5.20 p.m.
Anchored in Quest Bay - that all went fine - until I tried to set the anchor - looks as though no astern gear... and forecast (from S.Africa via Base on island) is for Front to come through soon - with strong NE winds - not protected in here from that direction, so on a lee shore & will have to sail away ... Pity...

Seal surfaced by boat, wandering albatross sat on water close by, lots of sooty and wandering (NZ) and royal (Tristan) albatross flying around, petrels, a rare noddy tern .... so many birds of all kinds...! And the scenery is SO dramatic - high rugged mountains with craggy outcrops, rocky islets - and mostly clothed in green... truly awesome .... and a privilege to be here to see it all!

8pm
Picked up anchor and was under sail an hour ago - without having fixed windvane, despite trying.... Got rudder back into position OK but problem with fixing & securing pin to hold there - needed more time, which weather was not allowing..... grrr!!

So we're on our way to Cape Town again - ETA around 9th May.... winds and weather permittiing...

Wednesday 27th April 2011

Midday
Felt really good earlier - came up on deck to find sunshine and a patch of blue sky overhead... seas seemed a touch less rough and big than they were overnight, although we're still getting thrown by the occasional big one... wind was definitely down,... barometer was rising,...... a variety of birds nearby... It felt good to be alive - and out here...! ( I celebrated with a fresh grapefruit for b'fast...)

The windvane repair is turning into a problem. Taking a time, but getting nowhere with filing down the ends of the drill bits jammed in the holes I drilled - blunting my file, if anything!. .. and I don't have a grinding attachment for the electric drill. The drill bit ends are sticking out in the way of my splints - which therefore won't do the job they're meant to do. So it's on to Plan B: I'm going to wire in place some masonry drill bits as splints - the grooves will help the wire to hold them in place and they seem to be the only longish, but thinnish, bits of metal available that I can lay my hands on... (I don't need to drill masonry on board, anyway!)

Spoke to Andy on Tristan da Cunha just after 7am - he looked up some paper charts and named a few big rocks around Gough Island for me to avoid - then I found them myself, well inshore, so no problem. I needed to zoom in much more than I had been, when looking around the island, away from Quest Bay where I'm hoping to anchor. (Showing the usefulness of paper charts - no such problem with those.) He also gave me the satphone number of Capt. Clarence on the 'Edinburgh' - the ship now on its way to Cape Town with the salvaged oil from the spill. Clarence has often anchored in Quest Bay so I hoped he might have useful info for me - which he did... said the bottom was good soft holding - nice to know when you've been worrying about fouled anchors on a rocky seabed! He also gave me the position he usually anchors in - and said to look him up when I reach Cape Town!

On with that repair..... I expect to reach Gough Island Thursday afternoon - tomorrow!

1400 GMT report (Links to maps showing positions/tracks on 'Travels' page):
LAT: 40-34.29S LONG: 013-04.88W COURSE: 087T SPEED: 6.6
WIND_SPEED: 19 WIND_DIR: NNW SWELL_DIR: NNW SWELL_HT: 3.5M
CLOUDS: 100% BARO: 1023 TREND: 1

24hr DMG: .........160 n.ml. ...... YES! That's more like it!!! Distance to Cape Town:1549 ml ; to Gough Island: 145ml

4pm - tea-time! Just increased the genoa to near-full - wind down to 18 knots now, so we were only making 5.5kt - too slow! Now speed back up to 6.5 kt or more - we're 'creaming' along! At times like this, the boat is moving so smoothly it's as though she's hardly moving at all... going really well ..... until a big wave comes along to make us lurch and slow down momentarily - but then 'she picks up her skirts and runs ' again...! (I quote...!) This is why we go sailing.....

We're skimming the edge of a High and managing just to stay ahead of a small Low - hopefully, we'll keep moving ahead of it, in N winds, because it's trapped between two Highs and will disappear off to the SE soon. It's got a lot of rain on its associated Front... maybe we'll not get too much of that either - just light cloud overhead at the moment.

6pm - Dark now. Finished mending the vane....phew! Finally getting to my tea....! Used four drill bits, two each side, held in place with lots of wire... after connecting across the break to keep that together independent of the 'pin'. Looks pretty strong - we'll see how long it lasts..... In theory, since very little force perpendicular to plane of vane, should last indefinitely... but that 'very little force' might be too much in strong conditions, if wind gusty... Of course, literally to 'wrap up the job' ... lots of duct tape around it!.... both to protect it but also to help stop the wiring being vibrated loose somehow, so the bits come free...

It's been handy that the wind and seas were less this afternoon, letting me concentrate on the job. We've NNW 16kt of wind now and are making just under 7 kt... ETA Gough Island (WP in good deep water), if this progress maintained, is midday tomorrow (110 ml to go). Then it's a further 7-8 ml to Quest Bay, to anchor - which I have to prepare for - chain needs to be attached to anchor (which is stowed in chain locker), which will be heaved over the pulpit... If not calm enough to do in advance, it'll be done on arrival, while still in deep water... won't take long... That's assuming it's calm in the anchorage - according to weather forecast, it should be.... fingers crossed!

8pm ...... So nice to be enjoying a lovely relaxed sail, this evening - for a change!! Lovely clear, starry sky ... Milky Way,... Southern Cross, ....upside-down Orion in the W!

Tuesday 26th April 2011

1pm

Thought it was looking murky outside .... went up on deck .... vey foggy!! The temperature display went cuckoo a week or two back, soon after it was showing me some nice rising water temperatures. They looked as though they were due to the current coming down from Brazil and it certainly made the boat and air feel far warmer - I was able to discard my thick fleeces from then on. I'm presuming this fog must be due to warm moist air (although humidity is only 74%) hitting chilly water - so it's frustrating not to be able to see how exactly the sea temperature is behaving, although it has been feeling a touch cooler of late...!

We've been sailing along very nicely, often at 7kt, since last night - wind around 20knots from the NNW, so a beam reach East in fair-sized seas that are also rather beam-on, so occasionally knocking us when a larger one comes along.

I'm trying to finish off my windvane repair - no point in pausing at Gough Island, hoping for calm water to replace the rudder that slipped off the post (when the pin went missing while lying to the drogue), if the windvane itself isn't good and ready!! All taking a time, but I don't expect to reach Gough Island until Thursday and conditions just now aren't too rough, as they have been, for getting work like that done... Spoke to John on Gough Island this morning (also Andy on Tristan da Cunha) - looks as though the wind will be from NW later on Thursday, which is good news since Quest Bay, on the SE of the island, is sheltered from that wind direction - so water should be calm, especially since there should be no swell getting in either.

1400 GMT report (Links to maps showing positions/tracks on 'Travels' page):
LAT: 40-32S LONG: 016-35W COURSE: 091T SPEED: 6.6
WIND_SPEED: 20 WIND_DIR: NNW SWELL_DIR: NNW SWELL_HT: 3.5M SWELL_PER: 4
CLOUDS: 100% BARO: 1018 TREND: 0
COMMENT: Fog! But not too thick.. Dist. to Cape Town: 1707 ml, to Gough Isl: 303ml

5pm
Fog lifted a while ago, but still a low cloud layer lurking, waiting to fall again, maybe.
Just spent a long time gazing around - lots of prions today, joining our usual companions - a flock of them, swooping around so fast, narrow wing tips touching the water and then swooping high up... Such pretty, graceful birds - mainly blue-grey on top and white beneath but with a distinctive dark 'M' mark on their upper wings, light grey 'collar' and dark mark through their eye - seemed to me most likely to be Antarctic prions ('whalebirds').

I'd actually togged up and gone on deck with a view to reducing sail a bit - but decided no reason to do so... The wind hadn't increased and we were making good speed at 6.5-7 kt,... the problem was more one of the seas having built up (to 4m) and a swell from two different directions, NNW and W, making for frequent heaping up of the waves - which then often washed over us heavily, knocking us about as they did so. Our course being E wasn't helping.... but, for the time being, all was OK. So I watched the birds instead...

8pm
Decided to reduce canvas with nightfall... wind up to 25kt at tmes, so thought it to be prudent, just in case, as forecast, it goes higher......

Monday 25th April 2011

Consistent winds from just W of N at 20-23 knots overnight, swell around 3m, so plenty of waves catching us from time to time & tossing us around. An albatross and a spectacled petrel around dawn. Then, around 9.30am, I heard the sound of the wind starting to rise. It was soon up to 29kt... and then to 32 kt.. all very quickly ... I debated whether to heave to, since conditions had got pretty rough, with the swell nearer to 4m.... but decided it was simpler, with no shortage of searoom (Antarctica being a good distance away!), just to run off downwind for a time - I was hoping the strong winds would pass soon - which they did! Amazing how much more comfortable it always feels when we turn downwind... so much smoother a ride and the apparent wind instantly becomes less.

We headed SE for a time, instead of E, and were making 6.2 kt, well-reefed from overnight still - I'd been expecting strong winds at some point, so was prepared. It lasted about an hour and then we were able to get back on course with the wind down to 23kt or so, but slightly backed, to NNW. In fact, during my radio Net times. from 10.40 until 11.15, I hove to... it was simpler that way and meant I could switch off both autopilot and instruments (which give a lot of RF noise) to maximize my chances of hearing people clearly on frequency!

In the afternoon, we had some really heavy rain - not had that for an age! - and the wind backed and dropped as a Front came through... from NNW 24kt to W 15kt and then to SW 11kt... meaning I had to gybe the sails ... with changing of preventers in the swell and releasing of a running backstay to add in to the wet procedure. But as I was busy, I glanced up - to see a Wandering albatross glide powerfully by on fixed wings ... no movement at all... Very different from the occasional Yellow-nosed ones I've seen - far larger, and with conspicuously far more pure white on its underbody, back and wings, with dark ends to its upper wings - a Tristan albatross possibly... I paused for quite a time, until it disappeared from view...! They breed on Gough Island, my birdbook tells me.

When the rain finally stopped, I saw we had lots of birds around - the flock of Great shearwaters was back again! They so often rest in the water right beside us - handsome birds. But soon after, the wind had dropped from 12kt to just 5 knots ... and we were drifting at about 2-2.5 kt - so on with the engine (no problems!) to motor gently at just over 4knots, while the wind shifted around in a High pressure ridge... As I write this, at 9.30pm, it's still only 7knots but from the NE.... Winds will pick up over tomorrow, becoming strong N winds as a small Low approaches, to give a bit of excitement as it passes over us on Thursday, possibly....

Report for 1400GMT:
LAT: 40-22S LONG: 019-17W COURSE: 093T SPEED: 5.9
WIND_SPEED: 23 WIND_DIR: NNW SWELL_DIR: N SWELL_HT: 3.5M
CLOUDS: 100% BARO: 1017 TREND: -1
Rough seas still.
24hr DMG: 129ml. Distance to Cape Town: 1831 ml, to Gough Isl: 430ml

Easter Sunday 24th April 2011

N wind continues, 19-22kt, and 3m seas to knock us about. Overcast, grey sky.

Spoke to Andy, radio operator on Tristan da Cunha this morning, at 8am. (Moved my local clock time one hour forward to GMT-1 today, having sailed E over longitude 22.5W - so Tristan, Gough & "Nereida" are all in the same geographical time zone now.) Andy said oil-spill clean-up ship had just left for Cape Town, so things on Tristan will be getting back to some kind of normality now.

Rock-hopper penguins have suffered badly - half the island colony, most of whom got oil-covered, have died, despite all the cleaning and feeding efforts. the yellow-nosed albatross were fairly lucky, only one oil-damaged bird having been found. Some other birds have been lucky also - it all depends on their breeding season .... some species don't come in until September to begin their cycle ... so those are presently well out to sea and safe...

Seems that I'll not get to meet John on Gough Island to shake hands.... Even if weather is OK to stop for a short time, as I'm hoping, the whole island is surrounded by cliffs, 50ft in height at least, so shore access is difficult - and I've no dinghy anyway, of course... No wonder they and their supplies were brought in by helicopter off a ship which stopped in Quest Bay (where I'm hoping to stop). We spoke this morning, after the S.African M.M. Net, and it seems we'll have to be content with VHF radio contact! Both he, and Andy on Tristan, are keeping track of me by my AIS signal and via Internet sites - they have Internet on both islands via satellite connection to a Cape Town server.

1pm
Sun trying to peek out, seas still rough, sky overcast, wind still up. Just reduced genoa and stays'l some more in effort to lessen heeling and make life a touch more comfortable, although still plenty of waves knocking us about and washing the decks... Saw a few birds while in cockpit ... pair of Atlantic petrels, a Yellow-nosed albatross and 2-3 Gt shearwaters... Better some than none! Was nice to sit in the fresh air and watch them and the seas.... even if I did have to hold on tightly and wedge myself into position firmly, clothed in my foulies!

1400GMT:
LAT: 40-10.45S LONG: 022-06.40W COURSE: 095T SPEED: 5.8 WIND_SPEED: 23 WIND_DIR: N SWELL_DIR: N SWELL_HT: 3.5M SWELL_PER: 4 CLOUDS: 98% BARO: 1019 TREND: -1
24hr DMG 138ml. Distance to Cape Town: 1960ml Distance to Gough Island: 557ml (ETA Gough Island: early Fri 29th April; ETA Cape Town: 9 May)

8pm
A beautiful sunset around 5.45pm - a long break in the clouds along the horizon enabled the sun to shine for a time as it got close to setting - lovely effect!
I decided to treat myself to an Easter egg - and found the Easter Bunny must have paid us a visit! On going to the last remaining egg box (from Ushuaia), instead of the two I was expecting to find, there were four! A lovely surprise ... I had one soft-boiled - far better than any chocolate one, just now! (I'll have some chocolate later, as well!) I also treated myself to a big ready-made meal - mushroom stroganoff and lamb hotpot - I mixed the two!

The seas seem a touch calmer - we're not getting thrown about as much. Surprising, since the wind has not dropped at all (still around 22kt) and direction is still N. Forecast is for slightly stronger winds overnight into Monday - maybe they got that wrong... fingers crossed!! Hopefully, some lighter winds tomorrow, before strong again Tuesday-Thursday... still from N.

Saturday 23rd April 2011 - A bumpy ride - close-hauled, heading in to building seas

Grey skies first thing, with occasional glimpse of sun, but more sun seen later, as clouds broke up more... A solitary Atlantic petrel flying around - all dark on top, black breast, white underbody, all-black wedge tail ... no other birds just now... Winds from N, over last day or so, are setting up a swell and wind waves from N also - getting a little bit wet on deck occasionally because we're on a close reach, so heading into the seas...

Spoke to John, (not Peter!), ZD9GI, on Gough Island, who relayed for me to the S.African M.M. Net. Said that on Tristan da Cunha, they're still clearing up oil spill from ship that went aground there - major environmental disaster.... bad long-term consequences for the island's bird population, some of which are endemic to this group of islands and breed nowhere else...

Radio propagation is not too good just now - very difficult yesterday and a bit better, but still not good, today. Had trouble contacting the Patagonia Net - just made it, and relayed position of 'Artemisia2' as well ... Milo and Teresa, not far from Rio de Janeiro, are having a problem with lack of wind and dodging rigs and long, long tows in the major oil field well S of Vitoria where they're headed to. Interestingly, I made excellent contact on 7MHz around 2300GMT last night with a Winlink radio station in Nova Scotia: Neil, VE1YZ, is close to Halifax, 5,454ml away from here on a bearing of 334T, and there's some kind of a N-S radio connection that often works really well to here, deep in the S. Atlantic, around midnight GMT. According to propagation tables, there's a near-zero chance of making the connection on that frequency - but for two nights now, I've had an excellent one!! I've had the same experience when well S in the S. Atlantic previously - doesn't always happen, but when it does, it works well! Something to do with the Earth's magnetic flux, maybe?

Report at 1400UTC:
LATITUDE: 39-56.99S LONGITUDE: 026-06.28W
COURSE: 097T SPEED: 5.7
WIND_SPEED: 16 WIND_DIR: N SWELL_DIR: N SWELL_HT: 2.0M
CLOUDS: 95% BARO: 1023 TREND: -1
COMMENT: Sailing nicely... 24hr DMG 139ml. Distance to Cape Town: 2099ml

4.30pm
Wind up to around 16knots, giving 20kt apparent. Getting slowly more bumpy as seas build up with the consistent wind direction and increasing strength. Expected slowly to increase to mid-twenties by tomorrow night and on into Monday, with corresponding increased swell. Occasional water washing decks... Making good speed - boat speed 6.5-7 kt consistently, SOG just over 7 kt... nice to see! Double-reefed mains'l, two 'reefs' in genoa plus stays'l.

Few birds seen today ... pair of Atlantic petrels earlier, but surprisingly, no Gt shearwaters ...normally, our most devoted companions since soon after we started from Stanley!!

Later: Not long after sunset, winds and seas seemed to be building, so decided to reef down more for overnight, while there was still light in the sky..... Think I rather overdid it, since our speed dropped dramatically, but I've left it - and our speed has come back up to a fairly reasonable 4.5-5.5 knots. I may unfurl some genoa if our speed drops down again.... but i want to avoid unnecessary heeling in the building waves which are beginning to knock us about....

1.30am Getting VERY bumpy in stronger wind from N, 20-23kt, heading nearly East! (Making 6.8-7.0 kt in apparent wind 25kt, close reaching) Seeing if I can connect to VE1YZ to send this...

Good Friday 22nd April2011 Happy Easter!!

5pm
Sun is getting low - it's just managing to shine now and then through a long gap in the thin cloud layer that's been overhead all day with its edge elusively just ahead and to the S of us! I'd hoped for some sunshine - but it's not happened.

A slow day with fairly calm seas - a long, slow, SSW swell combining now with swell and wind waves building up from the N-NNE wind direction. Wind has been up and down and shifting about - sometimes we've made good speed, other times we've just ambled along at 4-5 knots.... I'm expecting the N wind to build a bit tonight and into tomorrow, then a High pressure ridge , before N winds build again , more strongly perhaps, over Sunday night and Monday - nothing too strong, hopefully!

Not so many birds today, very few, in fact, but I just got excited on seeing a solitary Great-winged petrel swoop past. I'd been idly gazing at a pair of Spectacled petrels gliding around us, close by, when I suddenly realized I was looking at a quite different bird - larger, all dark, no white 'spectacle' rings around its eyes, but a lighter patch behind its quite long, heavy black bill.

Actually had a ship ('Kalypso', carrying grain to Taiwan) come past me, close by, last night! Saw it on AIS after first seeing its lights in the distance astern and had a chat on VHF with the officer on watch... confirmed Ch10 is still working fine!

I spoke this morning with Peter, ZD9GI, the radio operator on Gough Island, who monitors the morning S.African M.M.Net in order to relay if he's needed. He told me that the sea is very deep right up to the shore so there's no proper anchorage (although there is a deep one, in about 20m, marked on my chart , I noticed) and when he and the others come to the island for their time there (bird/wildlife research), the ship bringing them and their supplies lands them all by helicopter. The bay the ship comes into lies in the SE of the island, protected from all but SElies.

My present course takes me right past the island (UK territory) and I'm toying with the idea of pausing there maybe, if weather permits...It's still about 800 miles (one week) away but would give me the chance to replace my windsteering rudder in calm waters, to have it available for the rest of my passage to Cape Town. The birds I'm seeing are possibly rearing chicks there or about to (many breed in May), or they may be non-breeding, immature birds. They breed either there or on the other islands in the Tristan da Cunha group to the NNW of Gough Island, 220 n.ml away. (Tristan da Cunha is the only inhabited island in the group & has a resident population of about 300 people, I was told.)

Midday (local) position/weather:

TIME: 2011/04/22 14:00UTC
LATITUDE: 39-37.13S LONGITUDE: 028-05.62W
COURSE: 099T SPEED: 6.0
WIND_SPEED: 11 WIND_DIR: NNE WAVE_HT: 1.0M
SWELL_DIR: SSW SWELL_HT: 2.0M
CLOUDS: 80% BARO: 1025 TREND: -1

24hr DMG115ml. Distance to CT: 2238ml (Links to maps on website 'Travels' page)