Monday afternoon A good job done on torn area of mainsail - thoroughly rinsed off with fresh water and wiped down firstly with wet cloth and then with paper towels to remove excess water. Now leaving to dry before applying tape - Wednesday, probably. Windy tomorrow - 20-25kt expected as Low passes by.
Wind has been dying since sunset, ahead of strong winds later. Only making 2.5-3kt in veering wind, become slowly more northerly - keep having to adjust Fred so as to keep heading E.
Tuesday 1:30am Bright moon shining from in between light, broken cirrus layer - light enough to adjust Fred in veering wind and go to mast to tighten main halyard and re-do the tie holding down the sail. Wind up a little - our speed has increased to 5kt. Spoke to a few radio contacts just before - including ones in Switzerland and South Africa. Back to my bunk now!
7:30am Total cloud cover - no hint of sun. Adjusted Fred again - off the wind a little, this time - back heading E again, at 5.1kt. Had furled in some genoa earlier, in increased wind, and have been close-hauled since then, pounding into waves somewhat. Back for some more sleep....
2pm Have been making good speed, around 6kt all morning, but a bumpy ride with N-NNW 20kt wind and rough, beam seas. Occasionally, a wave will wash the deck - I just hope the sea water stays clear of my freshly-rinsed mainsail area. Everything is damp and moving around is a matter of looking for the next good handhold and being very careful. Same conditions expected through to tomorrow morning, when it should ease by midday as the Low to the S of us, that's giving this strong wind, passes on to the East.
Difficult to do anything when not at chart table or on deck adjusting Fred but stay in bunk where it's soft and safe as boat moves around in these rough seas.
Occurred to me that we'd passed the 22.5 degrees West marker for moving into the next time zone - so local time on board 'Nereida' is now just one hour behind Greenwich Mean Time - Azores Time (not that my iPhone knows that the Azores exist!).
4:45pm Suddenly, after a big gust, the wind has eased - we're making 5.5kt instead of 6.3kt... Five minutes later: That was a lull! Wind soon got back up to give us SOG of well over 6kt again.
Later: Wind beginning to get increasingly gusty - must be dropping...? Speed suddenly went right down....
1900GMT (=1800LT) - end of Day 111. We made 112 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 111 (by daily DMGs): 10,587 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900Z): Cape Horn LH: 2062 n.ml. to SW; Montevideo: 1694 n.ml to W; Buenos Aires: 1800 n.ml to W; Rio de Janeiro: 1537 n.ml. to NNW; Cape Agulhas LH (SA): 1965 n.ml. to ENE
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to Winlink.org and Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/01/22 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 39-26.35S LONGITUDE: 021-04.30W COURSE: 091T SPEED: 5.4kt
WIND_SPEED: 18kt WIND_DIR: NNW SWELL_DIR: NW SWELL_HT: 3.0m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1016.5hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 19.0C SEA_TEMP: 20.0C
COMMENT: Dull, grey day. Light rain. Wind beginning to drop?