Sunday 6pm Feeling a lot cooler now. The blue sky and sunshine disappeared slowly this afternoon while I was working on the mainsail - mostly a cloudy sky now, as the sun gets low before setting.
For overnight, I've tied up the sail in the damaged area to protect it but must try to rinse it off tomorrow before the wind gets up in the evening and overnight, as a Low passes by.
11pm Will be looking at the full moon to see if the total eclipse occurs here - might only be partial here in the S. Atlantic. 4.40Z is time of totality on Bonaire, in the Caribbean, I was told tonight by Steve, PJ4DX, who now lives there and was on the radio this evening. A lot of thin cloud around but hoping to see it well enough. If he hadn't told me, I'd have probably missed it - was unaware of the event, after midnight hereabouts.
Monday 1.30am/0330Z Top right part of the moon is in shadow - will look later to see if more will be in shadow during the lunar eclipse happening tonight. Might not be total here, might only be partial but sky is clear overhead so good view of moon.
Making better speed at 4.5kt.
2:45am/0445Z Almost total - 95%... The moon is deep orange except for the very bottom edge which is brighter than the rest of it. Must be because we're far S on Earth that we see a different portion than friends in Canada - who saw the lower portion go into shadow first, not the top section as I saw here - fascinating, the difference it makes due to where on Earth one is watching it!
3:30am All the moon is orange - totality! Slightly brighter orange on right hand edge .. First light of imminent dawn is showing in opposite part of sky - line of light on E horizon where sun is soon to appear.
4:30am Right-hand side of moon is back in light, left-hand side still in darkness. Moon is in the NW and light of dawn is to be seen in the East - interesting conjunction of events!
10:30am Bright sunshine. Making 4-4.5kt E-ENE - downwind under genoa alone.
Finishing breakfast before starting on mainsail - still a lot of rocking around, not calm at all, so will need to tie myself in very well to be able to work safely while trying to rinse salt off the torn area of sail.
Have seen two ships on AIS screen so far today - one will be ten miles away in 3hrs' time, the other is well off. Both heading E-W or W-E ... one to Recalada (S.America) from Jakarta, the other from Argentina, Uruguay or Brazil towards S. Africa.
2:45pm Finished rinsing and wiping down the torn area of mainsail - quite difficult since little to hold onto and it's not anywhere near as calm as I'd have liked - and there's no nonslip on deck just there. A good thing I could tie myself onto the boom.
After giving a good, firm wipe on both sides with a very wet cloth I ended up dousing it all with fresh water and then drying off again with paper towels to get rid of excess water. It's now drying in the sun and wind - mainly wind since quite hazy now but temperature is 21C or more. The torn edges are well exposed to dry thoroughly - I hope!.
The final step of applying Gorilla tape to hold the damaged area together is not going to be easy - that much I've now confirmed. Will have to start at one end and work my way along in small sections. Hopefully, there'll be less swell when I do it.
Later today, I'll tie that section of sail in to the boom again, since strong winds are expected overnight and tomorrow.
As I was just getting started, I radioed to the cargo vessel 'Siana', also headed E, which was soon to overtake us, coming fairly (but not too) close. They said they saw 'Nereida' on AIS, having checked our MMSI number, and they confirmed they'd stay clear and pass to starboard. I was amused when they came back to me a short time later asking for our course - being under sail and wind steering, we're not moving as much in a straight line as they undoubtedly are!
They diverted slightly to come fairly close - probably wanted to get a sighting of this small sailing vessel in the middle of the Atlantic heading East. (I told them we were under sail with no engine!)
3pm Was delighted to find a spare pair of reading glasses I've been missing for several weeks - safely tucked into the pocket of a jacket I've not needed to wear for ages.
Wind is now dying and sky is mainly overcast. Instead of 4.5kt we're only making 3.5kt. Will have a short nap, after some food, to make up for overnight sleep lost to the eclipse.
1900GMT (=1700LT) - end of Day 110. We made n.ml. DMG over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 110 (by daily DMGs): 10,379+? n.ml.
Distances (at 1900Z): Cape Horn LH: 1910 n.ml. to SW; Montevideo: 1487 n.ml to W; Buenos Aires: 1592 n.ml to W Rio de Janeiro: 1375 n.ml. to NNW; Cape Agulhas LH (SA): 2170 n.ml. to ENE
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to Winlink.org and Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/01/21 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 39-24.95S LONGITUDE: 023-28.59W COURSE: 092T SPEED: 3.2kt
WIND_SPEED: 9kt WIND_DIR: WNW SWELL_DIR: WSW SWELL_HT: 2.5m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1024.4hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 19.0C SEA_TEMP: 21.0C
COMMENT: Overcast, gloomy. Slowed right down in light wind