Day 47 - Southerly Wind and Poor Progress

During the night the wind kept backing until at daylight we were dealing with a southerly wind which fortunately was moderately strong at about 17 knots. I hardened the sails several ties during the night to counter the wind shift and at 8 AM we were sailing close hauled doing 3.3 knots on Course 110T. I had moved to the port bunk in anticipation. At this point I had resolved two questions. First, the boat was pointing and moving well enough with just her two headsails. It seemed to me that raising the mainsail would increase our speed causing the hull to bash against the waves which would force me to reduce the headsails which would probably result in an increase of lee (sidewasys drift downwind) to the detriment of the heading. I could therefore not see a lot of up side to going to the trouble of raising the mainsail. The other question was whether to tack. A tack would have put me roughly on course 230T, tangential to the Horn, and not giving me much more southing than the present course. So port tack with two modest headsails it would remain unless there was a dramatic and unexpected veering of the wind. The night's MSLP weather fax showed that the front had passed over me. Unfortunately I was 10 degrees too far to the north to be able to exploit the excellent westerly winds of that low pressure area that was causing my wind problems. According to the grib file I could expect another 24 hours of this southerly. The weather was cloudy and drizzly. Gotta take the bad with the good.

At 6.05 AM boat time (12.05 GMT/UTC) I had my communication session with Jim in Western Australia. As before, I could hear him faintly and just well enough to recognize his voice, but could not quite copy him. Very frustrating. I'm pretty sure that he could hear me a bit better. At 12.10 by we followed the plan and switched from 12.353 MHz to 16.528 MHz and at first I thought that heard him more clearly, but thereafter I heard nothing. It is only a matter of time before we manage to establish a good session.

The days were getting longer - about 14.5 hours of daylight per day. And the southerly bluster had given me a taste of the chillier weather ahead. I had started wearing a wool sweater and when I visited the cockpit to start the engine I wore wet weather gear over my clothes (though I went barefooted). The boat heater had come into its own. In addition to its role as a clothes drier it now brought welcome warmth to the cabin, helping to keep it nice and dry.

Our noon position was 34S01, 119W45, giving us a n-n distnce of 71 miles. We had moved 1.1 degrees to the south. Our sailing performance was appalling. In the southerly wind we were on a COG between 090 and 080. I spent over 30 sweaty minutes putting the boat on the other tack only to find us headed west so I returned it back to the the starboard tack. Sheer desperation then drove me to putting up the mainsail. After 30 minutes of hard work the sail was up double reefed, we had gained at least 15 degrees on the wind, and I had learned another lesson about the boat. The boat speed had increased to 4 knots but the hull was not bashing. We were now headed slightly south of east instead of slightly north of east. It had galled me big time to make any movement to the north.

Within the hour the wind backed another 20 degrees and we were headed north of east again. I tacked and found us headed 235T, WSW, at 3 knots. The next day's n-n distance was going to be woeful, but I had come to see this day as one of minimizing damage rather than making serious progress. Never mind. A weak sun had come out and I could see patches of blue sky ahead. I felt better already. I went below for lunch and a nap, and when I returned topside at 4 PM the situation had vastly improved. The SSE wind had held and the boat was on a steady heading of SW at 3.3 knots. The sky had cleared much and now there was sunshine through a light overcast. The front was well past and this was the wind shift that had been expected.

To make a cup of tea I pumped the first water out of the starboard tank and it came out reddish with rust as it does from the bottom of the tank after a long period a long period without change. I used the water for tea and I will keep using it until it clears. If Brenda, Arnold, and I could survive for weeks on that chalky water that we got out of that tank in Raivavae I was sure that I would survive this.

At 5.30 PM the wind shifted and I tacked back, heading 100T.

At 8.30 PM I was forced to drop the mainsail due to the same old problem of the boom banging left and right in a dying wind. I rolled in the headsail and left the staysail up to steady the boat. I had not lost much by dropping sail. We had been creeping due east at 2.1 knots and I didn't want to go east anyway. With staysail alone we were doing 1 knot to the east anyway. Otherwise it was a pleasant evening with clear weather and a reasonably calm sea.

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