Day 53 - Becalmed close to 40S

At 2 AM I woke up to find the boat still sailing south on a good westerly breeze. The 2.30 AM MSLP weather fax explained where the wind was coming from. During the previous day I had seen the barometer rise 6 hPa which had puzzled me because we were being affected by the isobars of a low 250 miles to the south. I should have also been looking to the north. The two highs, one far to the ENE and the other far to the W were now being presented as one long bimodal high with isobars stretching across my north. This I could recognize and saw that I was just far enough south to reap the benefit of the west winds south of the high working with the west winds of the low to the south. Had I been another 2 or 3 degrees to the north I would have been enjoying wonderful weather with little wind.

When I stuck my head out for a look around I was pleased to see the plastic tarp patch still in position inside of the starboard side of the spray dodger, keeping out the wind coming from that quarter.

Before returning to bed I checked the battery bank because I had not run the engine the previous day, expecting to use it after a becalming that never came. The bank was at 12.0V so I shut down the computer, leaving only the chart plotter (that I needed because of AIS) and masthead light on. The boat was still using about 2.3 amps but I could see the wind charger weaving in and out with its modest contribution, taking the net loss to probably less than one amp.

At 8.30 AM we were still moving well, above 4 knots on a course of 165T. The battery bank was reading 12.1V so I knew that I could take the time to coordinate the engine run with another round of break making.

At noon our position was 39S40, 115W35, giving us a n-n distance of 87 miles. It appeared that we would cross 40S in the late afternoon, 2 or even 3 days before I had expected, given the earlier grim grib file reports.

At 2.30 PM I dropped the mainsail and rolled in the headsail. It was a shame because I was less than 13 minutes (miles) from latitude 40S. The true wind was less than 6 knots. According to the previous night's grib file I could not expect relief for 24 hours, and even then it would be a light wind. I was looking forward to this evening's grib file which might present a different picture. With just the staysail up and flogging left and right we were still making 1.2-1.5 knots to the ESE. Maybe there was a current.

After tidying things up it was time for a cup of tea and a muesli bar. The bread came out of the oven nice and crusty brown on top, and by the way the mung bean sprouts were great with my simple lunch of cheese and three slices of turkey lunch meat.

At 5 PM I went topside with the intention of putting up the storm trysail thinking that being loose footed (i.e. no boom) it would work better in light airs. Unfortunately I found that the wind was below 3 knots, the boat had lost steerage and pointing north, and the staysail was backwinded. I dropped the staysail to lay purely ahull and would put up the trysail whenever a 7 or 8 knot breeze came up. For this night it would be a leisurely rice and sardine meal followed by the usual desert of yogurt and raisins, then a quiet movie evening where I would finish "Max Payne" and probably watch a second movie. (Last night I watched "Pans Labyrinth" and found it terrific.)

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