Wednesday 2:40am LT (2030 Tues GMT) Just posted reports - blog, position, weather - and downloaded fresh weather files to look over.. Still expecting the Cold Front to pass over soon - overnight to just after dawn, possibly near 0100Z, wind will shift from WNW to SW-SSW, maybe quite quickly - will need to gybe onto starboard tack to maintain ENE course. Presently making around 5kt on ENE course.
Back to my bunk .... sleep.
7:45am Some breaks in the cloud cover - more white than grey now - cirrus.Excellent session on 7160 - pulling time forward has helped a lot - much better propagation nearer my sunrise. Maybe it should come forward a tad more?
Just seen that my wind indicator display has totally gone down now - just when it would be really useful for the big wind change coming up ... Oh well... (Later: 8:30am - it's back again - hope it stays... totally unreliable!)
12:45pm Gybed around onto starboard tack just before - wind had finally backed, as expected. Wind up nicely, so making ~5.5kt, with seas up a bit also: ~3.5m/10.5ft or more. Frontal rain has eased off and sun is trying to get out - not quite making it, but cloud cover isn't heavy so it's now quite a bit brighter than it was.
Cooking some white haricot beans ready for making a stew or thick soup later - it's really nice to have something like that ready just to heat up. I finished my ham and green pea soup last night.
Made a lot of Australian radio contacts an hour or so ago on 14183 - good, clear copy for several of them - nice to have 'easy listening'!
Think I'll finish the Brie for lunch and then take a nap - didn't sleep as much overnight as I should have done - thoughts relating to the Cold Front coming through ... when and how strong and/or sudden it would be ... kept coming into my mind.
3:10pm White haricot beans are cooked, so barley and a big chopped onion have been added in, ready for a little more cooking, to make bean and barley soup - will get thick over the 2-3 days or more that it will last. I might add something else, if I fancy.. some chopped ham, maybe.
Sun has been getting out, which was very pleasant, but a dark grey raincloud just came over - we got up a good speed for a time under it. Our speed keeps going up nicely, every so often, as we get a gust under a big cloud. Pity we can't keep up that speed all the time!
The remains of the cyclone I was trying to avoid, now a Low pressure system, is to our NW, blocked temporarily by the High pressure system we're just coming into now. It will finally get further S in a few days' time, once this High has moved on E - but it will be no different, by then, from all the other Lows that pass by in this part of the world.
7:20pm Having the bean and barley soup with ham - tastes good!
We're rolling around a lot in a dying wind - boat speed has dropped right down to around 3kt now - wind is forecast to go drop even further by dawn - to 3-4kt... Another night with little progress made. Wind should pick up again later in the morning.
1am Thursday LT (1900GMT Wed) Wind has totally died away now - we're making 0.5-1 kt.. Not expecting it to come up until midday... We'll be drifting around, trying to keep heading vaguely ENE until then... Was nice to see we made just over 100ml - 3 digits are good! Back to my bunk for some more sleep...
1900GMT (= 1 a.m.LT) - end of Day 182. We made 101 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Good to see 3 digits!
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 182 (by daily DMGs):16,042 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 976 n.ml. to ENE; Melbourne (VIC, Aus): 2217 n.ml. to E; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 2225 n.ml. to ESE; SW Cape, NZ: 2993 n.ml to ESE; Cape Agulhas LH (S.Africa): 3515 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: 2019/04/03 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 40-44.48S LONGITUDE: 096-11.35E
COURSE: 079T SPEED: 1.0kt
WIND_SPEED: 5kt WIND_DIR: SSW SWELL_DIR: SW SWELL_HT: 3.0m
BARO: 1025.2hPa TREND: 2 AIR_TEMP: 15.0C SEA_TEMP: 15.0C
COMMENT: Wind has died overnight... Back tomorrow!