Sunday 8:30pm Speed right down again - I'd hoped wind would be stronger to give better progress - but we're only making 4kt and often down to 3-3.5kt. Frustrating...
11pm A beautiful night - clear sky, no moon, so lots of stars in sight.. a good breeze - but just not quite strong enough for my liking.... still only making 4kt.
Pleiades low down but bright, with Taurus above and gymnastic Orion coming to the rescue... Sirius way higher than when seen in Northern hemisphere.. Stayed on deck for a time after adjusting Fred... Too good to rush away from.
Monday 0335am I hear the Patriots won a rather boring, very defensive game....!
Just had some rain - cockpit wet, no stars in sight now - overcast sky. But wind up more - making 4.9 kt - was just over 5kt but I adjusted Fred to take us slightly more off the wind - we were heading ENE. Now heading more towards E and just over 23 miles to Greenwich Meridian - by 0900Z might be across, if wind holds up.
Had usual 0300Z contacts with Florida and E coast USA plus Argentina, Uruguay and Newfoundland (difficult copy to there - getting to be a long way now!)
Back to my bunk....
7am Wind up more and still total cloud cover. Making over 5 kt a lot of the time - nice to see!
Have sent in usual daily weather and position report to Winlink and now dealing with emails and checking weather - looks settled for next day or so - no storms looming! (Later: Speed back down a bit - to 4.7kt at 8.30am)
Hoping to make radio contact soon with Tapio - we'll see if the propagation Gods are in our favour! Lost contact with Uku a while ago. Tapio is about to round Cape Horn in a day or two - getting very close. Hope weather is kind to him.
08:09:15 GMT - Time of crossing over Greenwich Meridian - zero degrees longitude - from W to E. Now officially in Eastern hemisphere! Having a party on board Nereida later today - music, dancing.... everyone is invited!!
11am Nice to see us making around 6kt or more - wind has clearly increased and we're flying more sails - just spent ages sorting out lines in order to pole out staysail since we're running downwind at present. Found several problems needing to be dealt with... I'm more than ready for a late breakfast now!
3pm Coming out from under the cloud layer into an area of blue sky with thin, broken cloud - so it has become more sunny now - a lot pleasanter. Not seeing birds so often now.
Speed down from earlier 6kt now - making 5.5kt on a broad reach - wind is clearly still up but not quite as strong as earlier - maybe 18kt or so? A small Low has passed by to the S and we're heading into yet another High pressure area - the sequence repeats never-endingly - the wind is set to ease slowly and our speed reduce accordingly.
Having a celebratory light lunch of things I fancy - cheese, green and black olives, hummus, some (wild) salmon... and I'll have a nice meal later - probably chicken in white sauce with asparagus and potatoes.
6pm Light beginning to get dull. Speed varying a lot - 5-5.7kt - under cloudy sky. Wind is definitely dying down.
7pm Beginning my party - music, dancing, food, drink (just a tiny bit - this is normally a 'dry' boat underway). Come and join in a celebration of a Greenwich Meridian crossing under sail in the S.Atlantic...! Fine misty rain beginning but all fine down below... Enjoying chicken and asparagus in sauce!
1900GMT (=1900LT) - end of Day 124. We made 117 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 124 (by daily DMGs): 11,623 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900Z): To Greenwich Meridian: 64 n.ml. due W; WP due S of Cape Agulhas: 858 n.ml.; Cape Agulhas LH (S.Africa): 945 n.ml. to ENE; Cape Town Hbr entrance: 900 n.ml. to ENE; Cape Horn LH: 2768 n.ml. to SW; Montevideo: 2706 n.ml to W; Buenos Aires: 2810 n.ml to W; Rio de Janeiro: 2510 n.ml. to WNW.
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to Winlink.org and Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/02/04 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 40-09.53S LONGITUDE: 001-15.91E COURSE: 090T SPEED: 5.0kt
WIND_SPEED: 15kt WIND_DIR: NW SWELL_DIR: NW SWELL_HT: 3.0m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1010.7hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 20.0C SEA_TEMP: 16.0C
COMMENT: 117ml DMG - improved by good wind this morning. Fine rain now.