Day 39, April 14

We spent the night drifting and I woke up at dawn to find the same picture that I had been seeing for days: gray overcast sky over a calm sea. The sea was in fact the calmest that I had seen on this passage.

Yesterday I had received Mark's response to my message about the engine oil pressure problem within 2 hours, and acting on that I decided to try running the engine at high revolutions. I started the engine, quickly took it to 1500, the 2000, then 2200 rpm with no oil alarm. I thought I had it made but after 15 minutes the oil pressure alarm came on. I took the engine to full revs for a few seconds hoping to stop the alarm but that did not work. It was time for Mark's suggestion to remove the sensor and make sure that it was clean, pending some final instructions from him.

This morning I had received some very useful information from Reg on the subject, also pointing strongly to the sensor. To quote part of his message: "Google search reveals low oil press alarm is a common fault with Volvo Penta. All posts complain about not being able to confirm if alarm is a fault or the real thing which can result in engine damage." Misery does love company, and I felt better after reading that. Mark had told me how to look through the oil filler opening for oil splattering around the rockers, which would confirm adequate oil pressure. I had done that a 1500 rpm and seen nothing but as a last resort would try again with the engine at full revs. Certainly after today's run all of the mechanism in that area was glistening with oil.

A wind came up unexpectedly at 0330, so I raised sail and put the boat on course ESE at about 3 kts. I could only guess at where the wind was coming from or how long it would last but I was in no position to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The morning's spot forecast was very encouraging. The prediction of useful wind was still in place and if anything it had improved. According to the spot forecast I could expect a useful wind in 30 hours and winds of 12 kts and up in 42 hours for the next 3 days, as far as the 5-day forecast could see. I could now see light at the end of the wind tunnel.

I had to roll the sail back in at 0530. So it goes.

At the morning session Graham confirmed the forecast in the spot report. I can expect good winds beginning on Tuesday morning. Based on what he could see of the bigger picture he advised me to sail more to the east than to the north and to not go above 34S. In fact 34S is about where I hope to make landfall between Capes Leeuwin and Naturaliste, so that limitation presents no problem. However I will try to follow the advice about proceeding more to E partly because the pilot chart indicates better southerly winds at 100E and also because it does not contradict Jimmy Cornell, who advocates proceeding to 100E before turning north.

To be fair to "Ocean Passages", it recommended making directly for Fremantle from 90E with the caveat "Some navigators, however, recommend continuing eastward as far as 100 degrees east before turning NE." Cornell also advocates making the crossing from S Africa at 39-40S the same as "Ocean Passages". Of course this information might be somewhat outdated given the changes in climate noticed by Graham and others during the past 10 years.

I got a very clear wfax out of Wiluna. We were inside of the first isobar of the high, which was centered at about 37S, 84E. It didn't look like the wind would be much better to either the E or NE. The ridge had split into two highs and disappeared. The low coming down off the Western Australia coast seemed to have become insignificant.

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