Day 27 - Radio Contact With Australia

About a week ago Jim Putt, a friend and fellow member of the Fremantle Sailing Club, suggested that we try to communicate by HF radio. We agreed on the days (yesterday and today), the GMT times (1205 and 1305), and the frequency (12.353 MHz USB) and this morning we had success. I hailed him and immediately I recognized his voice and could make out his words. Unfortunately thereafter the static and an Asian voice on the same frequency frustrated my efforts to understand what he was saying, but I'm pretty sure that he said that he could hear me quite well so I said a few words about my situation. I consider the session a great success because we've established that it can be done. I'm sure that we'll get better at it with practice. We spoke around the "short" side of the world: to my west and his east, without the sun between us. (I'm not sure how RF signals fare over the poles, with the strange electro magnetic effects over the regions.) It was gratifying to learn that he could hear me so well. I'm pretty sure that the RF ground shoe that I had installed below the waterline (and inspired by none other than Jim himself) is paying big dividends.

Before the sun rose I was convinced that we were going to have an overcast day. To the east I was sure that I could see rain. Then the sun peeped over the horizon, big and red and fiery looking. Soon the atmospheric moisture disappeared and we were left with a bright and sunny day.

This wind has been so reliable that I have no doubt that we are in the SE trade winds. It seems to be coming more or less out of the SE at an average of 14 or 15 knots. Sometimes the speed dips below 10 knots for a short time, and sometimes it speeds up to 17 or 18 knots. For two days I've been beating into the wind with the same sail configuration of full mainsail, staysail, and a bit of headsail to a slightly smaller area than that of the staysail. The boat is sailing itself to my satisfaction with this setup. There is only a hint of weather helm and it travels well except when the apparent wind exceeds 19 or 20 knots and the boat starts to punch hard into the seas. The headsail has been holding up fine so far, and I plan to maintain my policy of babying it. As we proceed south I expect the wind to back more toward the east and the south equatorial current to weaken. Both of these changes will allow me to ease the sheets and sail more comfortably - for the boat and myself - off the wind.

I had the last pear early this morning at it was amazingly firm and sweet. I recommend both plums and pears as good travelers under refrigeration. And the bell peppers have held up well too. After almost 4 weeks at sea I have my eye on a big red crisp bell pepper begging to be eaten. I've even got a few tomatoes left, not exactly in prime condition, but quite edible.

I downloaded an excellent weather chart from Australia last night. It is a polar surface chart covering the South Pacific from the South Pole to 20S on an arc from the east coast of Australia to beyond Cape Horn. Unless I can find something better out of Chile, this will be my primary window to weather conditions as I approach the Horn. - And what I saw on that weather fax wasn't too encouraging: a deep low of 963 HPa at 50S, 120W, which is pretty well on the path that I must take. There is another low of 967 HPa coming up behind it from the west. It's a jungle out there. I plan to sail through that region with storm trysail and staysail.

I did an engine check just before noon. Everything was clean and in order. All levels were good and the belt was tight. The fuel vacuum gauge was still not registering anything noticeable. The engine had 128.5 hours on it and I had topped the tanks at 113.3 hours. At 1100 rpm I doubt if I had used much more than 15 liters of diesel in those 15 hours of running, so I saw no urgency to top up the tanks. However, I will top them up at about 150 hours because I've been told that full tanks result in less moisture buildup and it is in my interest to get diesel off the deck where it is vulnerable and represents weight high above the waterline. The entire engine, by the way, is below the waterline.

At noon our position was 04S00, 121W31. Our n-n distance was 107 miles in the direction 184T. We had moved another 106 minutes (1.77 degrees) to the south.

Before lunch I had one more search for it. I had not been able to find my video camera since my return to La Paz from my visit to the USA. My recollection was that I had put it in a safe place before my departure to the USA, just in case a bad guy broke into the boat. Since departing La Paz on this cruise I had searched every place on this boat where the camera might be, which meant checking everything from the bulkhead behind the engine forward. I searched sometimes twice through every bag, every drawer, the sail lockers, the head, the food storage lockers, behind the book case, etc. For the second time I searched the chart rack underneath the navigation table and while I was at it extracted my paper charts covering the SW and SE Pacific. I gave up for a while and decided to take up Mark's advice and do some fishing. I went into the forward part of the starboard cabin locker where I keep the fishing gear and a plastic box caught my eye, and indeed it was the video camera. I want very much to have the camera to keep it at the ready to record anything interesting that comes along. and if I am game to take the shallow waters and pass within sight of the Horn I'll definitely want to capture that on video.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com