Day 31, April 6 - Less Than 2000 to Go

The wind was strong and the boat moved fast until the cold front came through. I had set the alarm for 2300 to make sure that I didn't miss it but at 2200 I sensed that the wind had dropped and the boat was riding quieter. I got up and the compass verified that we were now headed north. I gybed the boat and because the wind now seemed so calm (below 25 kts) I rolled out a bit of jib. Dawn was only 2 hours away and in daylight I would probably drop the staysail and rely on the headsail. We had made 64 miles in 11.5 hours and I didn't want the falling wind to ruin what was shaping up to be another good 24 hour run.

I did drop the staysail shortly after dawn and we picked up a bit of speed with the increased canvas of the headsail.

Once again the Australian Sailmail station saved the day for me. Although the S Africa station offers more frequencies with higher ratings, I have not managed to get a useful connection with them for days. I wonder if the Aussie station has an extra powerful transmitter. The transmission rate today was woefully slow at about 170 bytes/min going out and about 300 bytes/min coming in, but at least the job got done. If I miss a day or two of the blog there should be no cause for worry because the most likely reason will be bad atmospherics to the Aussie Sailmail station.

Graham missed his 0630 SAMMNet session. It happened once before when he blew a power supply on his computer.

Just before 1100 we passed the milestone of 2000 miles from Fremantle. That would justify a tot of rum tonight.

I stand corrected: Graham did not miss the morning session. Both he and Sam attempted repeatedly to contact me and got no response. I told them that I stood by for 20 minutes and heard absolutely no evidence that anyone was trying to call me. The did not hear my calls either. The mysteries of atmospherics.

The noon numbers were:

POS 40S01, 75E59
NND 132 nm
DMG 2792 nm
DTG 1992 nm

Of course I was pleased with that noon-noon distance, but unfortunately Graham's latest forecast called for 2 days of light winds in the 10-15 kt and 10-20 kt ranges. My experience has been that I tend to get winds below that lower limit, in the 7-9 kt range but perhaps I might get a pleasant surprise. The good news was that the moderate winds will be from the SW rather than the W, giving me a better point of sail for keeping the sails filled. These winds will be from a High behind me to the west and at a slightly lower latitude.

We sailed into the night with a good wind off the starboard quarter.

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