Day 49, April 24 - Less than 500

At 0900 I decided to try gybing the boat. Our heading had been tending slowly but steadily to move toward the SE and nightfall was only two hours away. I don't think that I had ever gybed the whisker pole before but I took my time - no shortcuts - and was helped by the gentle conditions. I removed the pole using the same techniques as earlier in the day. I then altered the Monitor airvane and hurried things along by turning the wheel, then went forward, and with the sail now on the starboard side I connected both ends of the pole, then let out almost the same amount of sail as before. I also transferred the sheet chafe guard to the starboard rail. And I was so glad that I did the gybe. We were running so well downwind that I was able to alter course another 20 degrees toward the wind in order to get a heading toward Cape Naturaliste. That 20 degrees would be handy if the wind went against me during the night. I dropped a new marker at the gybe point and it would be an hour or two before I would be able to analyze our track to determine the exact course and speed.

Other than being a pleasant day, other good things happened during the afternoon. One was that the wind had perked up slightly and the sailing was not such a struggle. Then my afternoon connection to Sailmail gave me very fast service, a trend that I had been seeing for over a week, and good connectivity to the world always cheers me up. The icing on the cake was the fresh spot forecast that I downloaded in that Sailmail session. I had asked for a forecast for every 3 hours over a 3 day period, beginning at the latest position of the boat. The forecast was better than I could have hoped for, and in sharp contrast to the morning's forecast. During the next 3 days there would be only one 3-hour period with winds at 9.9 kts, and all others would be above 10 kts, ranging up to the low 20's beginning late on the second day out. And it was very interesting to me that 15-16 kt winds were forecast for the coming night, making me start to think about dropping the whisker pole.

I didn't have much time for dithering about the pole because nightfall was fast approaching. I scanned the horizon and saw all across the stern horizon heavy ominous looking clouds, and that sealed it. I could not take a chance on being forced on deck to deal with the pole in 16 kt winds during the night and now the clouds astern showed all of the signs of a front. I went topside and dropped the pole, lashed it to the toe rail, removed the rail chafe guard, and set the sail with remarkable ease. Nothing like hands-on practice.

For the night I turned on the masthead tricolor as usual but also the chart plotter. I had looked at the Ocean Passages chart of major routes of powered vessels and as I approached Cape Leeuwin there was an increased likelihood of encountering a ship either on the great circle route between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia or a ship rounding Cape Leeuwin on a route between Australia and either the Horn of Africa or the Red Sea. I had kept the AIS on constantly during the passage, alerting oncoming ships of my presence, but I needed to have the chart plotter on in order for me to receive warnings of oncoming vessels.

The boat sailed itself beautifully all night. We passed the 500 mile mark at about 1700 - the middle of the night - and in the morning we were 460 miles from Fremantle. Our track throughout the night had been straight and directly toward Fremantle. It was uncanny.

The morning spot forecast indicated winds in the 10 kt range over the next 24 hours so I planned to put up the whisker pole again because the sail had already begun to snap occasionally. I had no apprehensions about doing that after the previous day's experience in deploying the pole.

The whisker pole operation went well. The pole normally rides on the deck extended by two holes, and it is possible to extend the pole along 5 more holes by about 5 ft. I had been using the pole at the same length as it rode on deck but decided to get more sail area by extending it by one hole. I didn't want to extend it by more because I did not want to get too close to matching the speed of the wind lest the functioning of the Monitor be impaired. Lubricating the inner tube with WD40 the previous day paid a big dividend because it slid up and down for the adjustment with frictionless ease, in contrast to the struggle I had been accustomed to. The longer pole meant different calculations on the amount of sail and length of sheets required for the fit but I got it right on the second try. The result was very good, with a larger area of sail that was flat and quiet, and the heading still toward Fremantle. I now had confidence in being able to continue sailing through the period of slack winds. What a great tool this whisker pole was! Bob Carrol had done me a great service by introducing me to them in La Paz.

I removed the shower curtain from the navigation station. The risk of heavy weather had receded and besides, the navigation computer was still sited safely on the cabin table.

I was forced to drop the whisker pole and roll in the sail shortly before the 0800 UTC 24 hour report. The wind was down to a whisper, perhaps 5 kts and far below the forecast 9.9 kts, and the Monitor had not been able to maintain heading. The forecast predicted winds of just above 10 kts beginning in 3 hours but I was skeptical because the latest wfax showed a high of 1022 almost on top of us, just to the north of us at the latitude of Perth. I wasn't complaining because we had had an unexpectedly good run the night before. You win a few, you lose a few.

Our sailing day numbers were:

POS 35S55, 108E16
NND 99 nm
DMG 4441 nm
DTG 439 nm

I ran the engine for one hour immediately after the noon report and the oil pressure monitor problem exhibited its intermittent nature. The engine ran OK for 9 minutes then the oil pressure alarm started to come on and off. It must have done this 20 or 30 times then it stayed off for about 30 minutes and then started the same on-and-off pattern.

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