Day 10, March 16 - Relief On The Way

The weather got cloudy in the late afternoon and soon it was raining. I did sailing in fits and starts, creeping along a 2 kts when there was just enough wind to fill half of the jib, but drifting most of the time. I woke up at 4.15 AM to the sound of wind and soon we were underway again doing over 5 kts to the SE against a SW wind of about 15 kts. In the very light winds I had been using the autopilot which had behaved very well as we crept along slowly, but with this strong wind I engaged the Monitor and the repaired airvane was a non-issue. It seemed to me that a front must have passed over me during the night, given the rain and the characteristic wind shift from NW to SW. This had not been predicted either in the 6-hourly spot report or the latest 3-hourly grib file.

At 4.50 AM we crossed latitude 43S. I bore off from a SE course to ESE. I wanted to work my way further south, but slowly and not crash diving. It was an overcast and chilly day, the sort of weather that I would expect in these realms.

I spoke with both Sam and Graham at the early SAMMNet session. I asked Graham if a front had passed over me throughout the night. He checked back and replied that it was a trough with a thin band of cloud. I'll have to do some reading on the dynamics of troughs and ridges. The current gift of southerly winds that I am enjoying is do the fact that I am in a "squash zone" between a low to my east at 41.7S and a high to my west at 42.7S. I'll enjoy it while it lasts because I expect to be becalmed at midnight. It is then when I will run the engine for 2 hours in order to charge up the batteries. The weak sun and lack of wind have made things difficult for my power management but for now the wind charger is delivering 2 and 3 amps.

I received a Sailmail message from Jeanne on Nereida last night. She was well to the east of me at 44S, 088E,2600 miles to the east, but we will try to establish radio contact at 1030 today on 14310 kHz. ... Note that she is at 44S. She too started off with a plan to make the passage further to the north, and I understand that she similarly was plagued with light winds and has found satisfactory winds at 44S.

The wind started to die and at 9.15 AM I lay the boat ahull. We had made good perhaps 20 miles in the last 4.5 hours. This piecemeal method of sailing was not suited for a crossing of over 4500 miles.

I spoke with Jeanne at the appointed time, sort of. I was getting very poor reception from her although I think that she could hear me OK. She asked me how I was doing and I grumbled about the lack of wind of course. We agreed to try again the following day, same time and frequency.

I finished the pot of bean stew and had it for lunch as a rich and thick bean soup. That pot provided 6 main meals (along with rice) and today's lunch. I cleaned the pot the put in beans and lentils to soak overnight. Tonight I might have spaghetti.

At the second SAMMNet session I told Graham that he had given me the best wind prospects in many days. The wind will be dead at midnight but beginning at 6 AM tomorrow I can expect 3 days of winds from NW and SW with strengths in the 15-25 kt range. Three cold fronts will pass over me during that time, each bringing its own strong winds from the NW which will then switch to the SW. I asked Graham for advice on whether to stay along 43S or drop farther south and he advised to stay between 43S and 44S, so I will sail within that band and see how it works out. I must keep in mind that the season is heading into winter and the low pressure systems will begin to arc farther to the north - and get more intense!

Later Graham told Jan on an American boat bound for Brazil 'Poor old Robert has been having a terrible time in the Southern Ocean with lack of wind but his time will come and soon he'll be on his way.' If he said that to cheer me up it worked big time.

At noon our position was 42S59, 27E30, giving a n-n distance of 47 miles to the SE. We had drifted back to the north of 43S but were now sailing at 5 kts to the SE and were about to cross it again.

In the meantime the wind picked up from the S during the SAMMNet session and soon I hoisted sail for another spurt of progress.

At 4 PM the wind was still holding up and we were making 4.5 kts SSE. The overcast sky was frustrating my effort to see a comet named "Pan-Starr" visible to the west.

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