The night's grib file indicated that after a period of light airs before dawn, thereafter for the next two days the wind would be strong and generally from the SE. The night's weather fax showed me to be under a trough but from the strength and direction of the wind (SE backing to ESE) it appeared to me that I was under the influence of a high centred at 40S, 140W. Below 50S was a procession of lows with associated fronts circling Antarctica.
The first thing I did after waking up at 7 AM was to put in the second reef. The wind was as high as I had seen it so far in the cruise, surging to an estimated 23 and 24 knots. Even though it was chilly I stripped down for this one because I could not afford to lose my clothes to a bucketful of sea water if the boat slammed into a wave while I was in the cockpit. Once clothes get soaked in salt water they will stay damp and clammy until they are rinsed in fresh water. The reefing went well, and I thanked my lucky stars yet again for no longer having to visit the mast during reefing work. As is common in these cases of being over canvassed I lost no perceptible boat speed in taking down that second slab of sail.
How conditions had changed in 24 hours. Today was a day of staying inside the cabin as much as possible and do brain work instead of physical work.
In the late morning I got a dose of heavy weather sailing. At 11 AM I looked at the chart plotter and saw the wind at 28 knots. I stuck my head outside and to me it looked like a full gale with howling wind and huge cresting seas. (Later I consulted Bowditch and the sea state that I saw was consistent with Force 7 on the Beaufort Scale, 28-33 knots.) I dropped the staysail which lowered our speed from over 4 kt to about 2 kt. The downside of a hanked sail is that it requires personal attention so I had to go to the foredeck and bring the peak down to the deck and tidy the body of the sail against the rail. I thought it prudent to lash it down so I made a second visit to tie the peak of the sail down to a deck bollard and tie the body of the sail to the rail. I got back into the cabin shivering and decided that this was a good time to do an engine run. Going to the steering station to get the engine started cost me another drenching of sea water, and after I dried off again I began to feel the warmth of the heater. The cabin needed some drying because every visit topside resulted in more water inside. There was one more visit to be made In looking at the mainsail I realized that the toping lift was taking the pressure from the mainsheet, leaving a curl in the leech of the sail. I went to the mast to loosen the topping lift then after tightening the mainsheet I returned to the cabin for warmth and a hot cup of Milo. On reflection I saw how quickly my psychology had changed from getting south as fast as possible to just getting through this near gale. I realized also that none of this had been predicted by the wind reports. The storm trysail was on top of the V berth and I made plans to deploy it during the next spell of favorable weather. If it performed reasonably well in moderate winds I'd just leave it up for the duration. I had to be better prepared for these sudden and unexpected strong winds. I also had to be better prepared to heave to. The double reefed mainsail presents too much area for heaving to in a gale, forcing me drop the sail and lie ahull. I should be able to heave to comfortably with the trysail.
At noon (1800 GMT/UTC) our position was 29S55, 123W36, giving us a n-n distance of 77 miles. We had moved south 1.3 degrees and even with reduced sail I expected to cross the milestone of lat 30S in mid afternoon. It will have taken me 8 days to make the 10 degree crossing from 20S to 30S.
At about 1 PM the wind began to ease up and the sun began to shine weakly through the clouds. I decided to wait for a while to see how the wind would settle down and to allow the sea to calm down a bit before considering more sail. I had one of those instant noodle lunches then got into my warm and dry bunk for reading and a nap. At 2.30 PM I was up and soon I had the staysail up again. Before I hoisting I had a good look at the forestay for slackness or perhaps a frayed wire. All looked OK. Our speed rose from 2 knots to 4.3 knots to the SE against a 21 knot wind. We were now at lat 30S01. I was unusually hungry so I prepared a bowl of hot oatmeal with two tablespoons of powdered milk and a tablespoon of honey.
I've been seeing a certain kind of seabird over the last few days. They are of medium size with angular winds that underneath are light with dark tips. According to the book they could be Sooty Shearwaters. I admire them. They don't know about isobars, grib files, squash zones, etc. They don't seem to even care what the weather is like, going about their business as usual.
At sunset we were doing 4 knots to the SSE against an 11 knot breeze. The sea had calmed down considerably.
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