Day 25, March 31

I woke up at 10 PM to find the boat moving well in a stronger wind but headed almost SE. The forecast had predicted the wind veering to W then WNW so it was time to gibe. The gibe went very well. I adjusted the Monitor airvane to take the wind from the port quarter instead of the starboard quarter and as it brought the boat around I concentrated on the sail, which popped neatly through the space between the two forestays. This put us on a heading of E and more directly to Fremantle. Now that the wind was stronger and steadier I rolled out another foot of sail, taking our speed to 5.5 kts. After a slow and difficult half a day we were on the move again.

The boat moved well throughout the rest of the night, though we were not setting the pace that we would have made down at 43S. Before I was finally able to receive a wind forecast from Sam I felt that I had no choice but to order a grib file and a spot forecast from Sailmail with the hope that I would be able to download it. I managed to download it using a higher frequency and the grib file for 0600 tomorrow (1 April) shows a pattern worth noting. Forecast wind speeds are: 23 kts at 39S, 27 kts at 40S, and 31 kts at 41S. Extrapolating from that, the latitude 43S where I was sailing can expect gale conditions. That is a graphic illustration of the biggest benefit of sailing a little to the north, namely gentler winds and less ferocious weather. (The other is warmer air temperature.) Associated with that are benefits of less likelihood of mishap (such as Nereida's damage in 6 meter seas) and less time lying ahull. OK, the downside is a slower passage, but so far for me it has been a good tradeoff. Looking at the above grib file, I'd rather be sailing in a 27 kt wind that will push me along at over 6.5 kt than putting up with gale conditions further south.

At 5 AM I managed to get a grainy reception of the ABC which was airing an Australian Rules football game. That would be right, given that this was Sunday.

[It's very early in my day, 0600 UTC, and 4 hours before the "noon" report, but I've noticed that now is the optimal time for Sailmail using an 18 mHz frequency, so I'll give it a go. If the transmission is successful I'll cover the rest of this day in the following blog.]

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com