Thurs 4am LT Moon still bright, getting low, but a lot of cloud around. Wind still light - about 14kt or less from NW, so downwind speed not good - 3.8kt - not helpful for a respectable DMG over today!
Have posted reports, so back to my bunk now.
8am Some sunshine - mainly light grey, slightly broken cloud but a small blue patch overhead is possibly getting bigger. Seas have calmed down a lot - to 4.5m/14ft from W - still pretty rolly as seas pass by - nothing too vigorous but a constant motion. Feeling chilly - cabin temperature is 16C and everything is feeling damp. Rain expected tomorrow, maybe tonight, with stronger wind, gusting to over 45kt, as the Front on a Low passes over.
10:30am Was busy getting breakfast when realised wind was picking up rapidly - so on deck to furl in genoa (fingers crossed that would go OK after yesterday's problem!)... Speed went up to over 6.5kt for a time - dark grey raincloud was close by - the gust was due to a typical 'cloud effect'!
Tested furling in a tiny bit of the genoa anyway, just to know if there was still a furling problem - seemed to be working fine, TG! But furled in no further - good to have the speed for a time. We weren't heeling that much and the gust didn't last too long - but wind is still better now than earlier so making slightly better speed.
Yellow-nosed albatross flew past as I was busy - same one as yesterday, maybe? Nice to see.
5pm Sun is setting. Just spotted the spinnaker halyard had come loose and was threatening to foul the top genoa furler - had to release it and bring it back around the spreaders to aft of the mast. Good thing I saw that - could have been nasty if I couldn't furl in the genoa in the strong winds coming up tonight and tomorrow.
Wind eased this afternoon but is now picking up and expected to keep on doing so overnight and into tomorrow, becoming ~30kt around dawn, staying 30-35kt, with higher gusts, all day and overnight Friday into Saturday, easing Saturday morning to below 30kt and continuing to ease over Saturday to around 15kt.
6:20pm Furled in the genoa to a small size - to just over half. Wind is slowly building and it's dark, although the moon is occasionally coming out between the clouds. We're still making around 5kt and when our speed builds a lot more, with further increase in wind, I'll furl in the genoa more - probably completely - but maybe not for several hours.
Friday 3am LT (1900GMT Thurs) Full moon very bright in between clouds. About to furl in genoa just a little more - heeling quite a lot, rather close to the wind which is expected still to slowly increase further. Being forced off course by wind which has veered to NNE and so is heading us - expected to back into N, and then NW eventually, over tomorrow.
Reports posted now - back for more sleep...
1900GMT (= 3 a.m. LT) - end of Day 197. We made 105 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 197 (by daily DMGs):17,469 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 644 n.ml. to NNW (513 n.ml. to WP due S of Cape - now passed); Melbourne (VIC, Aus): 854 n.ml. to ENE; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 932 n.ml. to ESE; SW Cape, NZ: 1805 n.ml ESE.
(514 n.ml. SE of Albany in W.Australia, 664 n.ml. WSW of Adelaide, S.Australia)
Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/04/18 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 40-21.08S LONGITUDE: 126-22.55E
COURSE: 131T SPEED: 5.3kt
WIND_SPEED: 25kt WIND_DIR: NNE SWELL_DIR: WNW SWELL_HT: 5.0m
BARO: 1005.5hPa TREND: -4 AIR_TEMP: 15.0C SEA_TEMP: 15.0C
COMMENT: Wind slowly increasing & veering - seas getting a bit more rough also