Day 22 - Contact with Tristan da Cunha

I had a reasonable night, though it did not start off well. After having watched the autopilot work flawlessly for 3 hours I hit the sack at about 12.30 AM and within seconds the sounds from the headsail told me that the autopilot had disengaged. For bed I had removed all clothing from the waist down because it was damp (fortunately the chest area is always dry) so I simply put on the wet weather trousers and boots over bare skin and went up to sort out the problem. After changing the point of sail slightly I reengaged the autopilot, set an alarm for 2 hours, and went back to bed. At 2 hours and 4 hours the autopilot was still engaged and it was at 5 AM that the headsail woke me up, and sure enough the autopilot was on standby. From the cockpit I was pleased to see that the boat had continued sailing nicely with a free wheel, heading east on a beam reach with the sail happy. The wind had strengthened and backed a bit which I think caused problems with the autopilot which was sailing to a course and not the wind. Anyway, I reduced sail, kept the boat on a beam reach, which was 20 degrees farther off the wind than before, and all was well, though we were making only 2-2.5 kts.

The latest grib file indicated a backing and weakening wind throughout the day with becalming during the coming night. After that another northerly wind would set in. I was planning to speak with TdC by the HF radio (6.230 MHz) to discuss the issues of anchoring and visiting.

At about 9.45 I established radio contact with Tristan and found myself speaking with Andy. He thoughtfully asked if there was anything special that I need and I responded that I was OK. However, "want" is a different question and I'm hoping to find fresh bread and fish, and maybe some beer, not to mention the luxury of all luxuries, a hot shower! If there is a laundry I'll have my soggy clothes washed and dried. I'm big on using the internet too. ... And being British they might just have a friendly pub.

Andy asked my position and I told him that I was about 100 miles out, (107 miles on bearing 108T to be exact), but I gave him a conservative ETA of 2 days. The problem is that I'm dealing with a stiff southerly wind with big seas and it is impractical to try to beat into it, so I will not be closing on the island significantly today. However, there will be a lull in the wind tonight and tomorrow it will be from the north, and then I will make my final run.

I told Andy that my biggest concern was a safe anchorage and he replied that I'll be dealing with the harbor master as I approach the island, which makes sense to me. We agreed to speak again at 10 AM tomorrow.

I must say that speaking with Andy lifted my spirits immensely. After being pounded by boarding waves hour after hour for 3 days I needed a lift. As if to mark the new mood I went to the cockpit and engaged Jeff the Monitor wind steering after giving it a day of rest. This was the first time that Jeff was steering on a starboard tack since the repairs a few days earlier, and it was coping well.

I prepared the British courtesy flag. I kept the entire leading edge of the Aussie flag because it has the lanyards for tying it, so let's think about it as an Aussie flag with the blue starry bits cut out.

Then I saw my first AIS target in several days. It was the Aston Trader II, a cargo ship headed for "PHUMY", wherever that is, at 10.2 kts. We were expected to pass 4 miles from each other. With her heading of 102T she was probably going to round the Cape of Good Hope.

At noon our position was 36S24, 014W24, giving us a n-n distance of 84 miles in the direction 085. We were 106 miles off TdC but did not expect to close on it significantly until the following day. The barometer rose another 9 points to 1015 hPa. It had risen 13 points in 2 days after having fallen 18 points the previous 3 days.

After lunch and a nap I spent a very productive 2 hours on deck. The sea had calmed to the point where there was still a big swell but waves were no longer breaking against the hull, so I decided to attend to the railings and fuel containers. I was anxious to get the containers out of the cockpit because they had raised the floor section in front of the binnacle to the same level as the seats and it was not safe to clamber over these containers to get from one side of the cockpit to the other. Getting to the leeward winches in rough weather was particularly dangerous because I was approaching them from higher than the rail with a wave threatening to break over the cockpit behind me at any time.

It turned out that all 4 stanchions supporting the backing timbers for the fuel containers were bent. I had initially noticed only the worst one which was bent so far that it crimped at the base and will have to be replaced. I managed to do a reasonable job of straightening them all, putting my back against the cabin and pushing hard with both legs on the down roll. To do this I first loosened the top rails to give extra travel to the stanchions. I then attended to the two timbers on the starboard side, tightening the ropes holding them to the stanchions and preparing the ropes for the containers. When this was done I lashed 5 20-liter containers to the starboard side then attended to the single plank of wood remaining on the port side. Once that was secure I lashed the 3 short containers and one tall one, the tall one against a stanchion so that I could secure the upper part of it. That represented 60 liters on the port side, so I had nearly full internal tanks and 160 liters on deck. Afterwards I tightened the rails using the turnbuckles provided and the result looked OK. Thanks to the new heavier wire installed in Argentina the railings are still strong enough for their safety role.

The damage to the stanchions is a validation of my firm opinion that decks should be kept clear of extraneous clutter. In this case I was using the stanchions for a purpose that they were not designed for and loaded them up with too much windage. Having said that, I don't regret having done what I did for the simple reason that the necessity to carry the extra fuel justified the risk.

Back down below I was tired but very satisfied. It felt nice to be in the cabin without waves crashing overhead and sending water dripping through the cabin hatch, dorade vents, windows that need re sealing, and worst of all past the main hatch when a wave hitting from the side would go into the channel under the slide, back up the other side, and into the cabin as a cascade of 2 or 3 liters. Being on a starboard tack these cascades would pour onto the navigation station so I had to be on constant alert for the sound of one coming so that I could immediately close the lap to screen with the protective patch of shower curtain material over it. (I think that I may be able to remove the dorade scoops and replace them with flush plastic seals. For the windows I'll put a bead of silicone sealant externally as a temporary measure until I can do a proper job later. As for the laptop, I'll relocate it to the dry forward section of the main cabin table if I can find a suitable USB extension to maintain connection to the Pactor modem.) It also felt great to get out of the sea boots and into the comfortable velcro-strapped sports shoes right out of good old Walmart.

While I was working outside I thought about the spray dodger and realized that I can re-sew the bolt ropes myself. That job is trivial compared to the sewing job that I did on the torn headsail on the way to the Horn. If by chance I can find someone at TdC who can do the job I will let them do it, otherwise I'll do it myself, though it will be a rough job.

The boat was sailing faster and on a better point of sail than I had expected and if it held up I would be becalmed maybe 20 miles closer to the island than I had expected. Jeff was doing a fine job of steering.

At 10 PM we were 88 miles from the anchorage at TdC, bearing 119T. The wind was down to 10-12 kts and I was expecting it to die fast. I turned the boat harder into the wind to eke out whatever advantage I could get and Jeff was managing to steer at 2 kts through the water. I was looking forward to 24 hours of northerly winds starting tomorrow afternoon. If that went well I would be poised for dropping anchor on the morning of the 23rd, a Sunday. I hoped that the harbor master worked flexible hours.

Just before the 11 PM Sailmail session I lay the boat ahull because with our direction of 060T we were not gaining much advantage. That set us drifting to 035T at about a knot.

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