Wednesday 1am Dark, cloudy night with no moon visible. Seas still feeling calm - just bouncing about slightly most of the time... Attempting to send blog but having problem with connection at far end ("remote host closing connection"), so delayed ...
7:40am Finished radio sched on 7160 - fair-good copy still on a lot of US stations - amazing that we're still in good contact!
Daylight with overcast sky, pressure still well up at nearly 1028Hpa so still in middle of High and with very little wind, heading NE but making very little speed - only 1.4-1.7 kt.
Back to my bunk for some a couple of hours more sleep - still very tired, but hoping to work on sail later this morning.
3:30pm Sewing going well, with swell down a lot and no problem being caused by the wind. Sorted out how to start on the next half - not looking as bad for access to that part of the leech as I'd feared. Amount of material needed is precisely the amount available - amazing!
Dull day with total overcast. NW 11-13kt wind is giving SOG 3kt and COG 070T - better speed than earlier and yesterday.
6pm Light fading now - twilight under a grey overcast sky. Wind WNW mainly around 13kt all afternoon and expected to get up to NNW 20kt by midday tomorrow, increasing to over 30kt by Friday morning with a strong Cold Front passing over. We'll be well-reefed down, expecting some pretty rough weather....
Had a very productive day on the mainsail repair. Finished off the first half, for the time being, and I was delighted to find that I can, in fact, get to the remaining repair area to sew it without too much of a problem - so long as we're on port tack!
The second half of the 'tabling' material is now in place, held by a few stitches at intervals along its edge. Now I just need a few days of calm seas to sew it properly. I think I'll need to add a few more stitches at intervals along the first half also, as reinforcement.
7pm I'm often noticing that we're heading almost due E at times - the result, I think, of an E-flowing current and our low speed, despite trying to head NE, combined with difficulty sailing upwind or even on a beam reach - which we are now in the NW wind.
Dark now - had the rest of my green pea and ham soup - very thick! - and it's time to start my sleep routine if I'm to get enough in total overnight.
11:50pm Wind keeps gusting up to 20kt, so our speed has been getting up to 4kt - good to see the increase. Wind should stay at about 20kt, probably becoming just a bit more, overnight and then increase over tomorrow daytime towards 30kt later on...
Just chatted on 40m to Vince, 3DA0VV, in Swaziland, who has Internet access giving info on weather and he's been confirming the Cold Front coming through with strong winds over early Friday, into Friday night and then again over Saturday night. Will be nice when that system has passed on, out of the way - won't be very pleasant while the strong winds and big seas last!
1900GMT (=2400LT) - end of Day 175. We made 54 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Another slow day... but good work done!
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 175 (by daily DMGs):15,358 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 1653 n.ml. to ENE; Melbourne (VIC, Aus): 2821 n.ml. to E; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 2777 n.ml. to ESE; SW Cape, NZ: 3454n.ml to ESE; Cape Agulhas LH (S.Africa): 2840 n.ml. to WNW; Kerguelen Isl: 610 n.ml. to SW; St Paul Isl: 319 n.ml.to NNW
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/03/27 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 43-10.97S LONGITUDE: 081-21.48E COURSE: 070T SPEED: 2.6kt
WIND_SPEED: 14kt WIND_DIR: WNW SWELL_DIR: WNW SWELL_HT: 2.5m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1024.4hPa TREND: -2 AIR_TEMP: 18.0C SEA_TEMP: 17.0C
COMMENT: Wind keeps gusting to 20kt, giving SOG 4kt. E current affecting boat heading & COG - difficult to head NE.