Day 60 Tough slog 31/10/13

Position: 42.40 S, 175.34 E

Tough slog yesterday. Wind was a steady 35 knots, gusting to 45 knots. Waves were 4 metres for most of the afternoon and, the increase of wind in the evening made quite the lively seascape. It finally started to settle down around midnight and by 2 am, had backed to the southwest. It’s climbing up to gale force again but from the direction I need to go so I will probably ‘hove to’ for the day and wait for it to change to northwest.

Very  bumpy ride with water over the deck. My leak repair is definitely being put to the test and I have ‘fingers crossed’. Only a small amount of water in the bilge – from a bow deck fitting leak which I will get to when things calm down. Not much sleep last night. It was pitch black last night and difficult to work on deck so I’m waiting til daybreak before I go back up, change course and hove to. Other than that I am fine. I’m looking out the port light above the nav station and there, above the clouds, is a sliver of a moon hanging. It is dawning a grey and stormy morning with a fairly heavy sea running. It’s difficult to email in this motion and I am distracted. 

Bit of a flurry of activity here – washed the floor, made the tea, up on deck to adjust the jib which put us underway at about 5 kts headed for shore – about 110 miles west.  The wind may not be so strong and maybe, just maybe I can get phone coverage. 

A freighter passed by, about half a mile in front of me yesterday during the gale. I talked to him on the radio and in broken English he said “Keep going, keep going.” It was quite a surprise as he was close, and at first glance I thought for sure we would meet up eventually. He
was going fairly slow and then accelerated and went in front of me. I did get a picture of him but it was so rough you can only see his cranes
on the horizon.

Course 295 T Speed 4.5 kts Wind s 15 kts Waves s 1.5 m Cloud 60% Temp 15 C Baro 1004 steady Miles in last 24 hrs: 90 nm