Tuesday 3:40pm Grrr!!! Just deleted all my previous entries for today...
Day started around a grey, overcast dawn with usual radio session on 40m (7160) and posting of weather/position report - having a problem getting my usual good Cape Town radio connection so the Aurora wifi satellite connection comes in useful then.
By midday, the cloud layer had gone and it had turned into a lovely sunny day, with little cloud.... but also not much wind.
I'd had another nap - seem to need a lot of sleep but, in view of my several hours of physical efforts recently (getting in the series drogue a few days ago and bailing out the water in the bilge Sunday and Monday), I suppose that's hardly surprising.
Have been looking at weather in great detail - over and over... Have decided to keep heading gently E on basis that all the weather models are in agreement. They show TC Haleh heading S to near 40S and then heading more SE, having by then become a Tropical Storm with reduced winds, not a cyclone any more... Not that I want to get too close, either way.
If it behaves as predicted, we can now simply keep heading roughly E. It should be well E of us, by several hundred miles, when around 40S and we can keep heading roughly E after it has passed - good W winds are forecast for a time, if we can get to them and don't get hung up in another High.
If it doesn't change course to SE and if it becomes a threat, we can change course in the S wind at that time to head NW. I can always put out the JSD (series drogue) again, if necessary.
It seems unbelievable how many things have conspired to slow us down - as if having to stop for last weekend's storm to pass over safely weren't enough, TC Haleh tops it - we're having to go slowly now, or maybe stop again, just to make sure we stay safely away from it.
1900GMT (=2200LT) - end of Day 153. We made 69 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 153 (by daily DMGs): 13,913 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 3016 n.ml. to ENE; Melbourne (VIC, Aus): 4046 n.ml. to E; SE Cape of Tasmania LH: 4110 n.ml. to ESE; Cape Agulhas LH (S.Africa): 1512 n.ml. to WNW; Kerguelen Isl: 931 n.ml. SE; St Paul Isl: 1218 n.ml. E; Halfway point (55 18'E): 188 n.ml.
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/03/05 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 39-30.71S LONGITUDE: 051-14.43E COURSE: 099T SPEED: 2.3kt
WIND_SPEED: 8kt WIND_DIR: N SWELL_DIR: N SWELL_HT: 2.5m CLOUDS: 10%
BARO: 1020.9hPa TREND: 2 AIR_TEMP: 20.0C SEA_TEMP: 23.0C
COMMENT: Wind very light. Pressure up.