April 3, Day 28

All morning we moved well at 5.5-6 kts.

I had a good early session with Graham, with excellent reception. His weather forecast was generally good for me. Late this evening I can expect winds down to 10-15 kts and I am hoping to be able to keep the sail filled and the boat moving. Beyond that will be 2 days of winds from the W and WNW building up from 20 kts tomorrow to 30 kts the next day. At around 0600 Saturday a cold front will pass overhead bringing a wind shift fropm NW to WSW. I can't complain about that forecast, with its promise of strong fair winds. Graham told me that the 25 kt winds that I will be experiencing today will be at 30 kts just south of my position and will be stronger below that. He volunteered that latitude 40S is about the right place for me to be, and I certainly can't disagree with that.

I finished the last of the yogurt which was still very good even though it had not been refrigerated for days. I've still got plenty of powdered milk on hand.

The noon numbers were very good:

POS: 39S59, 68E51
NND: 119 nm (Noon-Noon Distance)
DMG: 2453 nm (Distance Made Good)
DTG: 2330 nm (Distance to Go)

I received confirmation from Australian Customs to my mid-passage and ETA report.

At 1830 I was forced to roll in the sail and lie ahull. The wind was much lighter than the predicted 15-20 kts I did not expect a useful wind for another 12 hours at least. We were drifting to the east at about 1 kt so at least that was something. I was able to get a good night's sleep out of it too.

At 0300 I woke up to find a weak wind and lumpy sea under a gray sky. This was becoming my most overcast passage ever. I checked the numbers and we have drifted just a shade under 10 miles to the east over the last 8.5 hours. I didn't waste much time in starting the engine. The batteries were at a low but tolerable 12.3V and this was the beginning of the 4th day since the previous engine run. It was nice to get some dry heat into the boat.

Thirty minutes into the engine run the chart plotter gave out the alarm that it had lost heading, which meant that it was not getting information from the flux gate compass. I went into the cockpit and found the autopilot giving out its sotto voce beep and displaying "Seatalk Failure". Now didn't that look familiar! The prime suspect was the autopilot head (i.e. display/control) at the binnacle. I had installed it brand new in Brazil and now it was showing the symptoms of water invasion. Yes, the unit had been put under severe stress through the huge seas since Brazil, but on the other hand the Garmin 152H stand alone GPS with its complex route, track, map etc functions that I had installed in 2011 had endured life on the binnacle from La Paz, round the Horn, and on to my present position and was still working fine.

The problem didn't freak me out - in fact I was a bit bored by it. I'd been there and done that, and in the final analysis knew that I could simply disconnect the head so that it would stop dumping garbage onto the Seatalk network and carry on without the autopilot. I still had the spare head that had been repaired in Mar del Plata, and it had been working when I swapped it out in Brazil; but if it came to that I would probably not mount it until I got closer to Australia.

This was all speculative of course. Maybe there was another problem, and maybe the problem would simply go away. (ha ha!)

I steered the boat myself for the last 90 minutes of the run, using the compass and compensating for the huge 45W variation in this part of the ocean. The task was made easier because I was feeling fresh, had a cup mug of coffee with me, and the sky began to clear from the west. By the time I finished the run the sky was sunny with a thin layer of high cloud and the wind had come up enough for sailing. Things were looking up.

In anticipation of this day's winds from the WNW I had already moved my bunk to the starboard side and re orientated the computer to that side. It was likely that I would leave the computer in this safe position for the rest of the passage. I was now traveling with both leaves of the main table open, as a safety precaution in case the computer began to slide during rough weather. I rolled out a bit of headsail and soon we were moving again ENE at just over 3 kts. It wasn't much but it was a start. The forecast was for the wind to strengthen to 30 kts at midnight.

The reception from Graham this morning was crystal clear and he said that I sounded like I was sitting next to him. He communicated with Jeanne via a relay and I understand that she is proceeding without stopping in Tasmania for repairs. The relay's name was "John" on VK4DBJ. Graham confirmed that "John" was land based so I wondered if it might be Jon Sanders. The winds for the rest of today will be moderate, getting up to 20-25 kts at midnight. Tomorrow they will steadily increase to 30 kts at 1800 and midnight. That High will then be centered 7 degrees to my north and I will be getting the benefits of its back winds from the NW.

We were now passing Kerguelen Island 550 miles to the south and Heard McDonald Islands, 800 miles to the south.

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