Tuesday 8:30am Totally overcast sky, dull day, swell rather less - hoping to get going on mainsail repair as soon as finished breakfast. Speed varying a lot: 1-3kt, but up from overnight 0.5-1kt .... :( Very poor progress made.
Poor radio propagation to E. coast USA just before - changing time on 7160 to 0100Z from now.
1:20pm Grey sky still - wind up to around 12kt, probably more, from WNW, so we're making ~4kt.
Just got back down below from sewing a section of mainsail - leaning myself against the hard top worked fairly well although was difficult to keep feet secure and stop from sliding away on side deck as we rolled in the swell...
Worked on the lowest section without undoing all of the sail ties and other ties holding loose sail slides securely. Takes quite a time to sew a short section although the method I've adopted is working well, with a bit of effort needed each time to push the needle through using a small block of wood with a recess in it to hold the needle eye in place and the lavender-filled pin cushion to push the needle into underneath the sail cloth on the surface below.
Having a one hour rest and some food before going back to do some more.
2:25pm Well, that was the plan - but the wind and seas have now built up, so I just finished tying the sail securely back onto the boom - sewing finished for today. Photos show position of sail repair area on boom above hard top and today's section being sewn - up to close to 2nd batten.
Wind is expected to build to around 20kt by this evening, ahead of a Front passing over, with wind backing to SW as it passes - likely to be a 90 degree, fairly quick wind shift during tomorrow morning sometime.
Now for some food and a nap.
Later: Sunset came in a grey sky - nothing seen of the sun as it set, just before 6pm. Made a few radio contacts - getting through to USA around 1115GMT now on 7163 but mostly not strong enough yet.
12:30am (Wed LT / 1800 Tues GMT) Alarm set to wake me up to check around... Dark night... No moon... Not many stars seen... just some overhead and astern... Making around 5kt ENE... Expecting wind to back to SW in a few hours' time. Downloading updated grib (weather) files to look at, as well as preparing this blog etc for Tues1900Z reports.
1900GMT (= 1 a.m.LT) - end of Day 181. We made 85 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Another poor DMG :(
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 181 (by daily DMGs):15,941 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 1077 n.ml. to ENE; Melbourne (VIC, Aus): 2307 n.ml. to E; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 2306 n.ml. to ESE; SW Cape, NZ: 3061n.ml to ESE; Cape Agulhas LH (S.Africa): 3415 n.ml. to WNW; St Paul Isl: 774 n.ml.to WNW
Position & weather report, for 1900 GMT, posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/04/02 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 41-10.12S LONGITUDE: 094-02.40E
COURSE: 078T SPEED: 5.0kt
WIND_SPEED: 19kt WIND_DIR: WNW SWELL_DIR: W SWELL_HT: 3.0m CLOUDS: 60%
BARO: 1018hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 15.0C SEA_TEMP: 15.0C
COMMENT: Dark night, no moon, some stars. Wind up & down
