Position: 45.31 S, 147.13 E
It’s 05:00 am, my earl grey tea and buckwheat honey are warming me up as a new day is dawning. The sun is making a blazing entrance through a long narrow band of cloud at the edge of a front that moved through last night. The cloud bank has a crescent shaped leading edge and covers half the morning sky with its low grey quilt giving a stark contrast to the light blue clear sky that stretches down to the window. The rising sun reddens the edges of the cloud. That great orange ball is blinding bright and its energy has turned on the green light on the solar panel regulator and is powering this computer. I went to sleep last night with 12.60 volts in the bank and this morning I have 12.57 volts. This recording of power usage is my new reality and will become part of my daily routine.
Last night while doing my set up on deck for the night ahead, I noticed the furling line for the yankee (jib) had chaffed quite badly and with the rising wind that was forecast for the night I decided to roll it in completely and sail with the staysail through the night. Had the line parted during the night and the yankee unfurled in the 20 kt wind, I would have had a fight on my hands to get the sail down on deck and secured. Our speed and heading suffered somewhat with just the stay sail up, but I knew I wouldn’t be woken to a major problem to deal with in the dark. I will try a new line this morning while the sail is still up as taking the sail down in any thing but calm weather is a real battle single handed.
I managed to change the roller furling line without taking down the yankee.We are now going about a knot faster and pointing about ten degrees higher which is a good thing. My decision to swap jibs for the night, although we lost some mileage and did not point as well, offered me the chance to have a decent sleep and do that job when I was fresh this morning and I am glad I made that decision.
Course 260 Speed 4.7 knots Wind NW 15-20 kts Waves NW 3 m Cloud 60% Temp 13 C Baro 1015 Miles in last 24 hrs: 110 nm
Earl Grey tea and buckwheat honey ? I thought you were still having a bucket of nails and a 4′ by 4′ for breakfast.
Hope you thoroughly enjoy the southern oceans, my mate will be sailing a 70ft clipper racer past you on from the 2.dec out of Albany if you havent been past Albany by then. Fair Winds Joe. Solo on living the dream, on a 27′ Albin Vega
Good Day Glenn,
Earl Grey tea and buckwheat honey…perfect combo. We have snow now that will stay and the Grey Cup game as well. Wishing you fair winds and know we are with you the entire journey. I recall you had been dubbed ” Canada’s Survivor Man”. Truth.
pat and fred