Monday 8:40am Dull grey overcast sky still, with SSE 20kt wind - feeling very chilly with a cold wind blowing. Being forced N of my planned course SE towards Stewart Island by the wind. Still only making 2kt under reduced sail, trying to go slowly so as not to be taken too far N. Forecast is for the wind to become light tonight into tomorrow, but still from SSE, and become NNW tomorrow afternoon. So it will be well over a day more before I can head towards Stewart Island.
10am Just finished a lovely session on 7160 with a lot of cheerful Aussie contacts - and John, W1QS, managed to get through as well - light copy but his signal was making it in OK from Maine, USA - excellent!
Being thrown around by the seas from time to time. Tried making scrambled egg of sorts for breakfast from a packet of dried egg - not too bad... Needed the bumstrap to keep me safe working in the galley while beating into the seas.
2:30pm Live session on ABC Tasmania this afternoon - a chat with Helen, the presenter, went fine - the phone behaved, so that was a definite plus!
Here is the link to the show, if you click at approx. 40 minutes it will be at the interview:
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/hobart/programs/your-afternoon/your-afternoon/11056996
A copy of just the interview will be posted on my website (www.svnereida.com) and on my QRZ.com page (VE0JS).
4pm Dull grey overcast still. Has been really rough all afternoon - we're sailing close to the wind, finally making due E, and banging into the seas which are often over 3m/10ft... Any loose things are jumping onto the cabin sole as we are hit by a wave... Not easy to do anything on board just now - no way I can go onto the aft deck to try to fix the wind transducer in place there - maybe tomorrow morning, when it should be much calmer with the expected light wind.
Making up some pancake mix for later.
7pm A dull day faded into a dark night... nice to have a hot meal - a tasty beef and spinach curry again. We're still in rough seas, with the close-to wind waves coming from SSE, but the wind will be backing more to SE soon, maybe becoming E at some point later, and driving us more N of the E course we've been managing for several hours now. Wind must have increased a bit because our speed is now around 3.5kt, often up to 4kt.
Realised that it's time to start wearing my warm Nepalese hat again - makes a big difference when I would otherwise be feeling cold.
Didn't fancy getting in between the two halves of my folded over damp duvet that I'd been sleeping between in my port bunk previously, so I lay on top of it instead and put my zippered 'extreme' sleeping bag (from my starboard bunk) over me - felt far better and I was soon nicely snuggled up and warm - even feeling dry. The feeling of dampness to the touch in everything is back again with the cold air temperature. Wearing my leather sea-boots feels good - keeps my feet and lower legs warm.
Back to my bunk now for a couple of hours sleep before a 9pm radio sched....
10pm Alarm went off early for the 9pm radio sched - but I didn't get up immediately - next thing I knew, it was twenty past... Jumped out of my nice warm bunk to get to the radio... Fortunately, people were still listening out for me. Great being told my signal is still getting into the Perth area of W. Australia so very well.
Having to be careful not to get thrown out of the chart table seat - it's on the starboard side and we're on starboard tack so we're heeling over to port - and more so, all of a sudden, when hit by a wave as we beat into the seas. I've a very good hinged SS arm/restraint which I bring down to keep me safe but don't always put it down when I should.
Closest point on Tasmania is now 100 miles off - so its outline is slowly disappearing from my AIS screen - I never saw any land as I passed by the SW and SE Capes 50 miles off over Friday and Saturday.
Will get back to my bunk again now - next item to get me up, apart from looking out for a change of wind direction coming up, requiring a course change and possible change of tack onto port in 4 hours' time, will be my own 5am/1900Z sched for posting updated position and weather reports along with this blog.
Tuesday 4:15am LT (Mon 1815 GMT) Trying to persuade the boat to head S or, better, just E of S, in a very light, backed wind ... Difficult! We had been heading 060T - not a good course for getting to Stewart Island. Gybed around very slowly with full genoa, pausing often. Fine, misty rain to begin with, but rain cloud now clearing away to give a bright, starry sky with a few wispy clouds overhead. Wind is now roughly from the E, but so very light it's difficult to make a close-hauled course. The best we seem to be able to make just now is 200T at 1.6kt. Hoping the wind will back some more...
1900GMT (= 5 a.m. LT) - end of Day 215. We made 47 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Deliberately slowed down during day to avoid strong, unfavourable weather ahead.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 215 (by daily DMGs):18,732 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): SW Cape, NZ: 750 n.ml ESE; Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 1715 n.ml. to NW; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 146 n.ml. to W; Hobart 140 n.ml. to WNW; Melbourne (Victoria, Australia): 420 n.ml. NNW.
Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/05/06 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 43-53.77S LONGITUDE: 150-14.42E
COURSE: 200T SPEED: 1.6kt
WIND_SPEED: 8kt WIND_DIR: ESE SWELL_DIR: SE SWELL_HT: 3.0M CLOUDS: 30%
BARO: 1007.9hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 16.0C
COMMENT: Wind backed & died.Port tack now, trying to head S.Rain gone.