We drifted around a lot overnight - so little wind it was almost impossible to maintain any kind of course - so I gave up trying and we just meandered at around 0.5kt until the wind filled in, eventually, not long before dawn and then Fred kept us on course as the wind slowly increased...
5:30am Daylight - dawn just breaking - pink clouds on E horizon, a few grey ones elsewhere - not many. Crescent moon with Venus(?) close by, quite high up.
Wind up finally, from WNW. On a broad reach, making 4kt with slightly furled genoa - just managing to keep it filled.
Contest on is making radio contact with N. America very difficult - band noisy with so many people calling. A short contact was made with two US stations but will be better tomorrow when weekend contest will have finished.
11am Plenty of sunshine in between scattered, large, white clouds. Wind has been well up for some time - Force 6 judging from areas of foam on sea surface - so over 22kt. From sound it's making, I'd have guessed at around 25kt. Seas have built up again, with plenty of white crests and steep faces.
Glad I furled in a small amount of genoa overnight.
Gybed onto starboard tack as wind had backed into WSW-SW, so now making E-ESE course at 4.5-5.5 kt.
2:20pm Seas have really built up again at 4-5m and we're being tossed around a lot as we climb the face of each wave and slip down behind. Wind is up and down a bit but generally around 20-25kt so quite strong conditions still - a wave just crashed over and washed the decks...
Still mainly sunny although plenty of cloud - but no rain threatening. I thought wind was dying down but it has definitely not, so far, just occasional lulls.
Started re-stowing the series drogue into a bag, flaking it down carefully. Tomorrow, likely to be almost no wind in High pressure region, so should be able to finish stowing it ready for next time.
4pm Wind less now - unfurled remainder of genoa. Speed up: 4.6kt now, from 3.5kt before. Some light grey clouds overhead now, sunshine in between. Seas still well up and on the beam, so rolly. Still working on stowing JSD, in between other things. Tea-time!
7:30pm Dark. Went to get more milk out of storage at 4:30pm to replenish galley - cartons were wet. Checked bilge & was busy clearing out a lot of water using small container for next two hours - only one small pump working, big one not at all - more hard work!
Water was salty so seawater getting in somewhere, with condensation water from cold surfaces added to it, I'm sure. Tired - going to have a short sleep... Not life-threatening, so will explore more tomorrow. Will finish emptying and dry out bilge completely then, in daylight. Also need to try to get the big pump working - might just be 12V power supply to a wet connector that is the problem.
Pressure has steadily been rising over the day - now at 1016hPa from 1006hPa early this morning. Boat speed down to 3.2kt in lighter wind from SW and slowly getting less.
1900GMT (=2200LT) - end of Day 151. We made 73 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, with overnight drifting in no wind, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 151 (by daily DMGs): 13,828 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 3074 n.ml. to ENE; Melbourne (VIC, Aus): 4200 n.ml. to E; SE Cape of Tasmania LH: 4105 n.ml. to ESE; Cape Agulhas LH (S.Africa): 1458 n.ml. to WNW; Kerguelen Isl: 1001 n.ml. SE; St Paul Isl: 1274 n.ml. E; Halfway point (55 18'E): 241 n.ml.
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/03/03 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 39-00.89S LONGITUDE: 050-07.98E COURSE: 090T SPEED: 2.5kt
WIND_SPEED: 10kt WIND_DIR: SW SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 3.5m CLOUDS: 20%
BARO: 1018.1hPa TREND: 2 AIR_TEMP: 19.0C SEA_TEMP: 23.0C
COMMENT: Strong wind over daytime to early afternoon, becoming less later