Wednesday 1pm PDT (2000 GMT) Dull, light grey sky and air is definitely feeling cold when on deck. Wind still heading us so having to tack to make progress towards Cape Flattery - just over four hundred miles away - with frustratingly slow progress as a result...
4pm PDT Tacked around - don't want to get too far S and wind will be backing soon enough to force us onto port tack again. Sailing close to the wind but trying to balance course against speed - the better the course, the lower the speed because preferred course is dead upwind - a juggling act!
Feeling a bit down because it would have been really nice to get in over this long holiday weekend - but that's clearly not going to happen, despite being so close now, because the weather has just not been playing ball....
6pm PDT Spending a lot of time, as so often of late, studying updated weather info - downloading it four times a day and checking each time to see if we can head in a better direction, in view of expected wind changes coming up.
Feeling quite tired so time for a short siesta before checking in to Pacific Seafarers' Net
8pm PDT Called PacSeaNet but they had too poor a copy to be able take my check-in details. Gave a "Roger, Roger" reply to query "Is all well on board?" which they heard and made do with that... Will hope to make contact as usual tomorrow.
Thursday 5:45am PDT (1245 GMT) "Glorious Sunlight", en route to Vancouver, passing safely 2 ml astern now after VHF Ch16 contact - they had changed course to divert from what was otherwise a near collision course. AIS alarm on our system is working well. Had to call many times before I got an eventual response but "all's well that ends well". Getting a lot of shipping passing by now. Back to my bunk.
10am PDT A lovely bright sunny day. Tacked around to head SE just after sunrise (around 7am) in NE wind. Thin, wispy white clouds overhead - sun shines through without any difficulty. Heeling a fair amount and pounding at times into the wind-chop that has built up on top of the 2m swell - it's always a lot less smooth when sailing upwind than downwind.
Opened my last carton of fruit juice (mango) with breakfast - might just manage to eke it out until landfall next week.
ETA: ...?? (Would normally be expected to take about four days, but ask the weather gods that have sent these headwinds to slow us down...)
DTF: Victoria Hbr (Ogden Pt breakwater): 456 n.ml.; Cape Flattery (~60n.ml. from Victoria Hbr entrance): 396 n.ml to E
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While sailing around the world, I'm trying to raise funds to help support the superb life-saving work done by the RNLI (Lifeboats) in Britain each and every day of the year, regardless how bad the weather. In fact, the worse it is, the more likely they are out there, helping someone in distress - whether a swimmer, surfer, small boat or big ship, night or day, summer or winter, and it is a charity - no government funding - so they rely on our help to fund their intensive training and maintain their equipment.
It would be great if you would take a moment to click on the Lifeboats link here (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Jeanne-Socrates2), if you'd like to show your support for my efforts at sailing solo, nonstop, unassisted around the globe, trying to set a World Record as the oldest person to do so9hr, by donating something towards the great work the RNLI do every day. If a lot of people put in even a small amount, it all adds up... Thanks a lot! If you can help, it will be very much appreciated. Let's see if we can reach my target!
(I hear that some readers might need to talk to their bank BEFORE trying to make a donation to the RNLI since many US banks routinely block foreign transactions unless
they are notified in advance.)
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1900GMT = midday PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) - end of Day 330. We made 53 n.ml. DMG, measured in a straight line between the two 1900GMT positions. Actually sailed over 90 n.ml. but tacking (zig-zagging!) against a headwind made for only just over half that distance gained.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 330 (by daily DMGs): 27,426 n.ml.
Position, as posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (go to either of those websites with my US radio callsign, KC2IOV, to see my track over this entire voyage:
TIME: 2019/08/29 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 49-12.50N LONGITUDE: 134-41.33W
COURSE: 124T SPEED: 4.0kt
WIND_SPEED: 12kt WIND_DIR: NE SWELL_DIR: NE SWELL_HT: 2.0m CLOUDS: 80%
BARO: 1014.1hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 21.0C SEA_TEMP: 21.0C
COMMENT: NE headwind, on port tack now. Thin, broken cloud.