Day 73 - Under 1000 miles

We had a good night of sailing. The wind was supposed to strengthened to the mid 30's so I wound the headsail right back to 50 or 60 sq ft. This kept our speed down to less than 5 knots but our direction was excellent. The evening grib file predicted that the wind would back to the SW and strengthen to the high 30's (which makes it a gale, come to think of it) so I expected to put up the trysail during the day and will probably be forced to heave to because I certainly do not want to be sailing beam to a huge sea. I missed the 2.30 AM weather fax because once more the alarm clock ran slow. I am now using the chart plotter's alarm and have also set my watch alarm which I will keep just above the bunk.

I think that I figured out the discrepancies in distance and bearing between the electronic charts and the paper chart. I stumbled onto it when I used the "ruler" function of the chart plotter to get the distance and bearing of the Horn. It gave me a "great circle" curved line with an initial bearing to correspond to the start of the great circle. The chart plotter "great circle" data corresponded with the data presented by the Dave's laptop software. The paper chart of course deals solely with straight rhumb lines. Having said that, I notice that the discrepancies are diminishing as I close in on the Horn.

I'm now having to run the engine 2 hours per day because the wind charger is not working and the solar panels are not able to help without sunshine.

I had a busy early morning. One and a half hours into the engine run I decided to take advantage of the lull in the wind to put up the trysail. It would be handy to do it while the engine was running in case I needed to use it. I wondered if I could put up the trysail on the run, with the apparent wind coming from behind us at 15 knots. The wind would be pushing the sail forward as I tried to raise it, possibly binding the slides so that they would not move. But it was worth a try because this would save the trouble and unpleasantness of exposing the beam of the boat to the heavy swell during the turn into the wind and relying on the engine and Vistar the autopilot to keep the boat into the wind.

I am always apprehensive about doing things for the first time because it is so easy to fall into a trap but the plan worked out OK. The heavy rolling was a problem and I realized that if while working on the hoist I missed the shroud with my back on one of the rolls I would go over the side (held by my lifeline). I took up Jim Putts's idea taking a second safety line and looping it around my back and to the mast (gooseneck actually) and this held me close to the mast splendidly. I managed to get the sail up and when the sheets were set up I brought them on and the sail came back and filled beautifully. We were now running downwind with trysail and headsail, each with similar area. By then the wind had backed a bit more so I gybed the boat and put us on a COG of about 125T. In time the wind would back to the SW and strengthen to gale force. While doing the gybe I had to go to the foredeck to free a snagged jib sheet and while there I shook the jury rig forestay and noted with great pleasure that it was nice and firm. At the end of all this it was only 8 AM. I made a hot cocoa pleased that the boat was set up for the coming winds.

I'll now give the obvious advice to anyone planning a long passage to take spare wire and bulldog clamps. In Fremantle I foolishly allowed the rigger to talk me out of taking the old rigging as spares, much to my regret. If you can take one of each stay, great. If not, at least take a coil of wire the thickness of your rigging. And always take plenty of bulldog clamps.

At noon our position was 51S42, 092W32, giving us a n-n distance of 93 miles in the direction 102T. In 24 hours the barometer had fallen 21 points to 993 hPa. The sky was overcast and drizzly. According to the paper chart we were 940 miles from the Horn.

The wind was late in coming. We ran before a 10-12 kt breeze just barely able to keep the sails happy. At 3 PM I woke up from a nap and found that the wind had backed 20 degrees, so I was able to ease off the wind, roll out a generous amount of headsail, taking our speed from 2 kt to over 4 kt. I sat at the companionway sheltered behind the spray dodger keeping an eye on things, because I knew that change was coming. At 5 PM the wind was up to 17 and 18 knots so I rolled in more sail, keeping our speed at about 4.5 kts. We were laying the turning point to Cape Horn nicely. The plan was simple: keep rolling in headsail as the wind built up then go only with the trysail. I was wondering how long we'd be able to sail beam on to the wind before being forced to heave to. I noticed on the chart plotter Isla Wellington and Arch de la Reina Adelaida. The British had been here.

At 8 PM the wind was approaching 30 kt so I rolled in the rest of the headsail. I was anxious to see how the boat would behave and if Jeff would need readjustment to cope with the new sail plan. Jeff dealt with it fine, though we were now slightly into the wind rather than abeam, but that was good because it improved our direction. I flattened the trysail slightly using both sheets. The heading was excellent but the boat speed had dropped to 2 knots due to the loss of drive from the headsail. This accentuated the lee effect of the wind and waves pushing us to the side, so that we were laying a course to Tierra del Fuego rather than the Horn. I didn't mind. At least we were moving and in sort of the right direction. The important thing was that both the boat and her skipper were comfortable.

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