Thursday 17th January, 2013
Fairly uneventful day with good downwind sailing - poled out, goosewinged. Weak sun and light, broken clouds after the morning overcast cleared away. actually saw a patch of blue for a time! Seas have increased rather - quite steep now, at 4-5m, but not a problem. F4 wind from WSW becoming W by late afternoon. Got up at dawn to get underway again in the morning... winds had increased a little initially overnight but had calmed down quite nicely by morning - I'd had a good sleep but only for 4 hours, so got back to my bunk aftewards, deciding it was too early for breakfast!
Only a few birds seen - with a great albatross soaring on fixed wings in the distance, while I was setting sail this morning, and just the occasional prion, Atlantic petrelwhite-chinned petrel and storm petrel over the day. It'll be interesting to see just how far they keep us company! (LATER) Just found us in company with a Wandering albatross - was watching the sunset - haven't seen one for ages, having had overcast skies or fog for so many days recently.
As well as speaking to Wolfgang on the Patagonia Net in Chile, I made contact just beforehand with South Africa - the South African Maritime Mobile Net (S.A.M.M. Net), with Graham, ZS2ABK, as Net Control beaming his antenna this way for the duration of my passage to and beyond S. Africa. Was only just able to copy him but that should improve . He relays my weather conditions to the SA Weather Service and gives me their up-to-date forecast for where I am... I end up with weather from several sources!
Put the Eberspacher diesel heater on today to try to dry out several wet jackets . Nice to have warm air in the cabin for a change! Sea temperature is slowly rising - it has just jumped up to 12.3C from 10.5C ths afternoon, compared with a minimum of 6.9C seen 200 ml east of Cape Horn a week ago.
Last night, having finished my ham, bean & veg stew, I tried another dehydrated meal, a Thai Chicken curry -- very nice! Tonight it's to be a Lamb Madras - all ready (not freeze-dried) in a foil pouch - just heat and add to some rice which I'm about to cook - and I've mango and lime pickles to go with.... Also boiled half a dozen fresh eggs yesterday, for lunches - so far, the eggs are still fine - nearly three months on, simply with daily turning!
There's a bright moon now...
24hr DMG at 8pm local time (2300GMT ): 99 n.ml.(hove-to for 7 hrs) Cape Horn 1002 n.ml. away (SW). E. Falkland: 597 n.ml. (WSW), S. Georgia: 429 n.ml. (SE). Cape Agulhas (southernmost Cape of Africa) 2880 n.ml.
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For my positions, see:
www.svnereida.com - 'Travels' - "Where is 'Nereida'?"
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/