Wednesday 6:30am Dark still. Running generator as I finish downloading latest weather files and posting latest reports - with photos which adds to time taken. Have to keep a careful eye on state of batteries, now that autopilot is in constant use but, in good wind, the Superwind wind generator more than keeps up with usage. Heeling a bit in 23kt wind on beam - giving good speed - up to 6kt!
7am First light before dawn.... Grey sky and raining a little. Pressure down at 1003hPa - Low off to W, heading SSE.
10:30am Sun getting out and grey cloud has dispersed - just broken light cloud now - but expecting heavy rain over tonight. Still making good speed SE, around 6kt, in NE wind over 20kt. Breakfast...
12:30pm Bright sunny day - clear blue sky overhead - in fact, almost everywhere except a light cloud layer dead ahead on the horizon - almost not visible. No longer making the excellent speed of before - wind has backed and eased somewhat, so now making 4.5-5.5kt.
Had been hoping to deal with wind display but we're banging about and moving too much to unscrew tiny connections or take measurements using the multimeter. Maybe later, if conditions ease further.
5:30pm Feeling so very frustrated - my Aurora system keeps going down. ABC in Adelaide was trying to get an interview with me but every 1-2 minutes, sometimes within just seconds, the call would drop. My system is the problem and it's not clear if there's anything I can do about it. Also means my weather downloads are being held up as well - so I'm not seeing up to date weather info either, just now...
Sun is shining from a blue sky with very few clouds and wind is around 17kt from NNE, so we're making a fair speed, although not the 5.5-6kt of earlier - that was very nice.
Sun is close to setting now.
8:20pm Wind has died right down, ahead of the heavy rain expected within a couple of hours. 'Calm before the storm' indeed! Not really a storm, perhaps, but expect there will be big rain clouds bringing strong wind and gusty conditions ... winds of 20-25kt, gusts up to 35kt or more and big changes in wind direction. I've furled in the genoa in advance since we had slowed right down anyway so less sail now makes little difference to our present speed but will be good when the stong wind arrives - while I'm sleeping, probably...
11pm Rain started at 10:15pm - and soon stopped... and wind died away with it - struggling to make 1kt SOG so can't get any sleep yet..having to keep adjuting AP. Occasional flicker of lightning in the clouds.
Thursday 2am (1600GMT Wed) Still hardly moving in light wind from astern - no more rain as yet.
5:30am Still not very fast in light wind from astern. Rain just started up again.
1900GMT (= 5 a.m. LT) - end of Day 210. We made 83 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Disappointing - very slow overnight, after fast speed made in good wind during early Wednesday morning. Clearly furled in genoa far too much, too early in view of conditions overnight to now.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 210 (by daily DMGs):18,25341 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 1371 n.ml. to WNW; Melbourne (Victoria, Australia): 222 n.ml. NNE; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 214 n.ml. to SE; SW Cape, NZ: 1103 n.ml ESE.
(1321 n.ml. SE of Albany in W.Australia, 452 n.ml. SSE 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: 2019/05/01 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 41-42.78S LONGITUDE: 142-46.35E
COURSE: 131T SPEED: 2.2kt
WIND_SPEED: 12kt WIND_DIR: SWELL_DIR: NE SWELL_HT: 3.0m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1011hPa TREND: AIR_TEMP: 17.0C
COMMENT: Slow progress - wind not as strong as expected. Raining.