Day 21, 27 March

I woke up at 2300 to find us at 40S18, only 18 miles south of my target latitude of 40S. I altered course 50 degrees to set us on a heading of ENE which to me marked the end of the iceberg detour and put us back on track to Fremantle. Two days had been lost but there had been no damage and (knock on wood) all boat systems were functioning well. The sea had calmed down greatly and there was no problem in taking the waves on the side so I also rolled out some headsail to pick up the pace from 4.5 to 5.5 kts. We were sailing under a fairly clear sky and almost full moon, so visibility was very good. The past day had been one of one rain squall after the other and I was hoping that the coming day would be more pleasant. There always seemed to be a medium sized dark bird flying behind the boat from one side to the other whenever I visited the cockpit at night.

I did a few sweeps with the radar and found no targets. Then I tried the HF radio and got good reception from BBC. I learned that Google has objected to the Swedes putting the word "ungoogleable" in their dictionary. I then heard the news for the first time since leaving Cape Town. Now that I had made the course alteration I turned off the 0200 crack-of-dawn alarm and returned to bed with the 0600 alarm still on.

I woke up in daylight at 0300 to find the boat making over 6 kts just lightly to the north of east on a beam reach off a 20 kt wind from the south. I wanted to hoist the staysail to share the load with the headsail but that would have to wait until after coffee. The forecast called for this southerly wind to continue at least through midnight and I was looking forward to some good progress. I was getting the southerly from the leading side of a High advancing from the west - the same benefactor that had helped me escape from the icebergs. The day was overcast but the barometer had risen another 4 points to 1026.

I brought up the staysail OK but it was a much messier operation that it should have been. I had to visit the foredeck 5 times, once along the lee rail. The final problem was revealed when the staysail was up and I brought in the sheet. I pulled and pulled until I had the sail end of the sheet in my hand. Somehow the bowline knot had failed, something that happens very rarely. Perhaps heavy flogging had loosened it. I inched my way forward along the lee rail feeding the line through two blocks then pulling the tack of the half lowered sail out of the water and tying the sheet back on the tack with an extra long tail on the bowline. Very messy.

I am a bit short of cockpit winches when flying both headsails on a starboard tack. The forward winch is dedicated to the headsail and I use the aft (spinnaker) winch as a turning block for the roller furling line. I never use a winch to roll in the sail (If you can't roll it by hand then there is too much pressure on the sail.) but I need to pass the furling line around that winch to give me a good angle for pulling the line in. There is a pair of large cheek blocks on the outside of the coaming on both sides of the boat. The inner ones are for turning the headsail sheets forward to the respective winches. I used the outer one to turn the staysail sheet forward to the cabin winch. Other than presenting a tripping hazard when stepping onto the side deck the arrangement worked very well. There is no problem on a port tack. I feed the starboard staysail sheet directly from the aft track block directly to the spinnaker winch.

At the early SAMMNet session Graham gave me a forecast of southerly winds (SE to SW) of 10-15 kts for the next 2 days. He told me that he did not see any threatening weather coming my way. He will take an Easter break from the 29th until Tuesday 2 April. He told me that normally he does not take breaks when he has boats in the Southern Ocean but that his wife had threatened him with divorce. I agreed and supported him completely. No iceberg can match the wrath of an irate woman. I expected to go it alone over Easter but Sam will be attending to me in place of Graham. The dedication of these men does not cease to amaze me. I will attempt to send a generous donation to the SAMMNet equipment fund from Fremantle.

With the expected winds on the light side from the beam the 6 and 7 kt sailing was over for a while. I would be happy to get 5 kts, and I would settle for 4 kts. But I could use a few quiet days after the recent days of fast sailing in strong winds.

Then I attended to the sail plan. The leech of the headsail had been fluttering too much to my liking, and with the prospects of moderate winds there was nothing to be gained by using the staysail, which is really for heavy weather. I dropped the staysail and rolled out the headsail to no. 1 jib size and there was an immediate improvement in our speed, pointing ability, and the behavior of the sail. From now on I will not consider using the staysail in winds of less that 20 kts.

I was still taking frequent peeks for icebergs with my eyes and the radar.

At the lunch session I was able to communicate with Sam on his rig which made everyone happy because it assured us that he would be able to support me during Graham's absence. I took the opportunity to thank Sam. I asked Graham at what latitude Jeanne Socrates had sailed through these waters and he replied that she sailed between 43S and 44S. Jeanne went through about a month or 5 weeks ahead of me and she either got past before the ice arrived or she was one lucky girl. Graham told me that Jeanne is underneath Australia now and she is now getting her weather and support from there.

The noon numbers were:

POS 40S06, 51E12
NND 112 nm
DMG 1618 nm
DTG 3175 nm

We were now passing the Crozet Islands, 370 miles to the south.

I cleaned the icebox and refrigerator compartments. Sea water from the companionway had found its way in an water was sloshing in the bottom. I've still got plenty of garlic, onions and potatoes, though some of the potatoes are going soft. There is one large sweet potato which will probably go into the next stew, and the mango is ready to be eaten. On the refrigerator side there is still yogurt, apples, tomatoes, enough carrots for another stew, and butter. The grapefruit had ice around it so I transferred it to the icebox. I have just opened a loaf of bread and there are two loaves remaining in the refrigerator. At these temperatures the yogurt is the only reason for running the refrigerator.

As darkness approached we were making satisfactory progress to the east

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