Day 31 - Mainsail Up and BBB3

I had a successful Sailmail session, though it took a whopping 35 minutes of air time to download a record 9 messages. As usual these days the transmission was fast at over 2500 bytes/min but I had to do some searching to find a download rate that was sustainable. Two of the messages were grib files, one that I had ordered that night and one that I had ordered the previous night and no longer needed. Two were from Graham of SAMMNet. He told me that he had heard my morning transmission clearly that morning, though I had been barely able to hear his. That means that he probably received my situation report which I had sent out "blind" in the hopes that he would hear me. In his second message he kindly sent me a weather report. Two messages concerned the exchange rate between the SA Rand and the Aussie and US dollars, so that I now know that the fee for my boat at RCYC will be about $21 USD per day. Another was a short message from Jeanne Socrates who was at 47S, 097W, (about 1200 miles from the Horn) moving slowly, but seeming in good cheer. She once again advised me to drop down to 37S before reaching the coast of SA. It is important that I approach CT from the south because I cannot allow myself to reach the coast north of CT unless I want to face a battle working my way south against the prevailing wind an current. I would be able to tell Jeanne that I had indeed begun slanting toward the south, although on a closer look at the approach to CT I cannot see the need to drop down as far as 37S. Cape town is at 33S55, a full 3 degrees and 180 miles north of 37S. Approaching the coast at 36S will still put me 120 miles south of CP, which should be ample to cover the possibility of adverse winds. Anyway, my backlog of mail had been cleared and I felt better. I would not order a grib file in the next session in order to hold down the air time.

I woke up just before 2 AM to the sound of water rushing past the hull next to my ear and the wind howling. I suited up and from the cockpit I could see that the boat was over canvassed. I rolled in probably 30% of the sail area and altered our course from SE to ESE because by now we were south of 36S again. The principal motivation for the shift south at this point was to position the boat for some expected SE winds that would drive us to the NE.

AT 2.15 AM we were within the 700 mile range to CT at 690 miles.

I missed the SAMMNet session by 10 minutes because I slept through the alarm from the gadget on the laptop. In future I'll back that up with the alarm from the chart plotter that will not stop until I hit the "Acknowledge" button.

At mid morning I faced the inevitable and raised the mainsail to the second reef. The latest grib file as well as Graham's information predicted a shift to southerly winds for the 30th (today), the 31st, and dying down leaving me becalmed on New Years' Day. In fact we sailed all night to a southerly just aft of the beam with headsail only and did OK, but I knew that we would fare better with a more balanced sail plan, particularly as the wind began to die down. For now the 2nd reef would do and I could shake it out and go to the 1st reef later.

Raising that mainsail is usually difficult for me, particularly doing it under sail in a stiff wind. One of the problems is that the lazy jacks have only 3 vertical cords to hold the sail in when the sail is dropped. The theory looks great in the comfort of the sail loft, where the vision calls for the sail to come down on top of the boom and all of the battens dropping nicely within the confines of the lazy jack. Reality is different. Usually at least one of the battens does not reach to the next vertical cord and winds up sticking out and dropping toward the deck. Always there are bits of sail in contact with the cabin, leading to inevitable damage from chafing if something is not done. That something is to go onto the cabin and lash the mainsail to the boom with straps, which negates the purpose of the lazy jacks. And of course before raising the sail I must stand on the cabin draped across the boom, often in rough conditions, and remove all of the straps. I am not going to give up on lazy jacks but I will definitely have a say in the design of the next one, which will include at least twice the number of vertical cords. ... I think that I am on top of the problem of the lazy jacks and running backstays fouling the backs of the battens as I raise the sail. It means going to the mast before raising the sail, completely dropping the leeward side of the lazy jacks, freeing the leeward running backstay, and timing the hoists carefully whenever in the region of possible fouling. But of course after the hoist there must be another visit to the mast to raise the leeward lazy jack again. That means more visits to the mast to attend to the lazy jacks that are supposed to make my life easier.

It took over an hour to set up the sails, put the boat under Monitor steering, and tidy up. This left us heading ESE doing over 6 kts with the double reefed mainsail and a reduced headsail. This was very good, except that I was so drenched in sweat that after peeling off my outer garments I had to use a towel to dry off as though I had been in the shower. I figured that I had earned it so I went to the forecastle and dug out a can of beer (4 remaining) and enjoyed it in spite of it being only at room temperature and especially because it was still morning.

And now that the wind spell is broken I dare to utter the hitherto unmentionable, which is no doubt obvious to regular readers of this blog.

The last six days since passing Tristan da Cunha have been of outstanding winds and progress. Day after day I had a strong following wind and made fast progress under only partial headsail. The only adjustments that I had to make were the occasional gybe and change of sail area. During that 6 day run since TdC I have averaged 125 miles per day and 5.2 kts in speed. I couldn't believe my good fortune as it developed and I did my best to milk it for all it was worth.

At noon our position was 36S05, 005E43, giving us a n-n distance of 121 miles in the direction 098T, a heading that had brought us south of S36. The barometer had risen 8 points to 1025 HPa and the sky was clear and sunny. We were 640 miles from Cape Town

It is now time for Blubber Blog Bulletin No. 3. I got careless and took a dose of sea water through the companionway and was forced to change to dry underclothes (second time in 2 days). While I was starkers I took the opportunity to measure my waistline with Jean's magic tape measure. I came in comfortably within a 42" waist which means that I've lost 4" since leaving Brazil. The technique should be no secret by now: solo sail a 39 footer through rough seas, live on rice and beans, and terrorize yourself in every gale that comes along. Unfortunately the method does not scale well, so I will not be writing a best selling diet book.

At 7.10 PM we were 600 miles from Cape Town and still moving well. I had confidence in spending New Years Day within 500 miles of our destination.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. It looks like I might have a quiet New Years Day becalmed and relaxing. I am looking forward to my first bath in weeks and a loaf of fresh-baked bread.

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