Saturday 7am LT Twilight, first light beginning, dawn not too far off. Donning foulies and getting ready to go on deck to retrieve JSD and get underway - will take some time, so best to start now.
Still no error messages seen, so I'm hoping the AP problem has been dealt with.
10:50 Problem getting JSD back on board - wind a bit too strong and seas a bit too big and close. Leader line all came in fine but line with cones on is proving difficult - resting for an hour or so and then having another go.... JSD line just jumped under life-raft and threatened to set it off - had to get quickly to stern and move shackle and deployment line fixed to boat up and away from the deck and onto the cradle itself - don't want the liferaft to suddenly inflate unwanted.
2pm Have spent quite a time on deck, trying to bring in the JSD but conditions are still too strong - brought in several cones earlier but then lost my grip and they all went back out again.. (Just one turn around winch is as many as will work without cones getting too caught in a wrap. Last time, I used two turns and that worked fine but that didn't work well today) Now have just eight cones (of 124!) inboard - at great risk to fingers and nails which are still intact, but only just! Will have to wait for lighter wind (and getting on with Wind instrument terminals' replacement in the meantime). Wind must be in mid-twenties now and seas 5-6m.
Frustrating! Means I'm possibly missing the beginning of a nice 'weather window' for getting down to Tasmania before headwinds (from SE) occur as a Low forms near here. Present wind is perfect for sailing SE!
Time for a late breakfast and maybe some coffee would be nice.
3:30pm Decided lunch was more appropriate - the rest of the Chicken Gumbo I didn't much enjoy two nights ago was much improved by heating it up with some condensed mushroom soup and made a good meal.
5pm Wind display has been frequently off or misbehaving. Tried to move the tiny spade terminals up and down last night, in an effort to get a better connection and stop the erratic display - but only managed to lose the data completely...! Have just now replaced the data/yellow cable tiny spade terminal - was badly crimped and had come loose, so clearly must have been giving an ongoing problem. All the other terminals seem good and firm.
Hopefully, that will resolve the problem of the erratic wind information that's been seen for quite some time. Of course, without the speed instrument available, the wind direction and wind speed are just the apparent ones - but that's fine - I can roughly judge the 'true' values well enough.
I'll have another go at bringing in the JSD now - light is beginning to fade and it's a dull, grey day anyway.
5:20pm Well that was the idea - until I realised the wind strength is 24kt - it would be no easier to bring it with that wind blowing than earlier...so I left it alone and checked the weather update. Looks as though both wind and seas will be a lot less by tomorrow afternoon, so I'm hoping to bring in the JSD by sunset and get underway by nightfall - we'll see how that turns out..
10pm A nice relaxed evening with lots of 'radio play', chatting to people. Started with Jim, WB2REM, and Tony, VK2RI and then several others who came by to say '73' and have a brief, or longer, chat - all very nice and sociable!
Tony mentioned having a port just before settling down for the night, and Colin, VK6CI, had mentioned having a glass of wine around sunset (two hours earlier in Perth area than here, in Sydney time) - and it suddenly occurred to me that I was not sailing but 'hove-to' effectively - so I promptly poured myself a very nice G&T (Thanks, Randy!).
The hope is to round the 4th Great Cape - SE Cape of Tasmania - by next weekend, leaving the 5th Great Cape - NZ's SW Cape, near Stewart Island - to be rounded the following weekend or very soon after, depending on wind direction and strength. That's the present plan.... made "at low water in wet sand"...
Then, we're back in the Pacific! (The Tasman Sea, I suppose, is in the Pacific Ocean so rounding Tasmania brings me back there, although, in my mind, it's rounding NZ that counts more)
Time to get some sleep....
5am Sunday LT (1900GMT Sat) Conditions are slowly moderating. Getting back for more sleep after posting reports - no rush to get up early!
1900GMT (= 5 a.m. LT) - end of Day 206. We made 35 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 206 (by daily DMGs):18,021 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 1090 n.ml. to WNW; Melbourne (Victoria, Australia): 352 n.ml. to ENE; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 524 n.ml. to SE; SW Cape, NZ: 1412 n.ml SE.
(948 n.ml. ESE of Albany in W.Australia, 245 n.ml. SSW of Adelaide, S.Australia)
Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/04/27 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 38-49.97S LONGITUDE: 137-08.23E
COURSE: 061T SPEED: 1.4kt
WIND_SPEED: 19kt WIND_DIR: SW SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 4.0m
BARO: 1022.6hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 15.0C SEA_TEMP: 15.0C
COMMENT: Lying to JSD still - conditions slowly moderating