Thursday 6:15am First light before dawn... a grey, cloudy sky after rain.
Back to drifting along SE at 1.5kt in SW wind of only 8kt - so much for the 20kt of wind with the rain shower that came along an hour ago .... So frustrating! I thought we were finally getting somewhere at a fair speed!
12:30pm Finished a short nap - was feeling very tired after second night of disturbed sleep - was short on overnight sleep hours.
Clear blue sky and seas not too bad at 2.5m - not a cloud to be seen as I set to work on an occasionally rolly deck. Furled in genoa earlier since no wind and not enough boat speed to maintain a course. Just drifting around now...
5:30pm Been busy on deck all afternoon on mainsail repair. Thought I'd finished with sewing but had to sew quite a bit more because sticky-backed tape wasn't of much use - sail was damp from the overnight rain. Now finished with sewing tabling near 2nd batten but will need to check again in good daylight - finished well after sunset tonight.
Now need to insert sail slides into mast track - won't be an easy job but seems likely it might be possible tomorrow - more light conditions expected first thing.
Was delighted to see that the main halyard had freed itself from a top mast step - I hurriedly tensioned it to make sure it didn't get caught again.
Wind had picked up and tying sail back onto boom got a bit difficult - a bit of a fight, but OK eventually.
Wondered why we weren't going at all well - I'd forgotten that I'd furled in the genoa in the near-zero wind earlier! A lot better speed and course was made once the full genoa was unfurled in 15kt wind from N...
Glorious sunset and bright silver crescent moon visible high up also.
A small flock of prions were busily swooping around while I was working and an albatross came by earlier.
Having a lot of trouble with the Aurora connections- one in particular keeps losing its connection - I keep having to push it together hard to start up the connection, to be able to send/receive messages. Talking to Colin, VK6CI, and Kim, VK6QT, (over radio!) to see if anything can be done to improve things.
11:30pm Sailing well in N wind often just over 20kt.
Friday 5am LT (1900GMT Thurs) Wind from NW, eased to around 17kt. Making just under 4.5kt, on rhumb line to Stewart Island.
1900GMT (= 5 a.m. LT) - end of Day 218. We made 57 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Mainly drifted in no wind before wind up around sunset.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 218 (by daily DMGs):18,849 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900GMT): SW Cape, NZ: 631 n.ml ESE; Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 1772 n.ml. to NW; SE Cape,Tasmania,LH: 261 n.ml. to WNW; Hobart 258 n.ml. to WNW; Melbourne (Victoria, Australia): 529 n.ml. NW.
Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/05/09 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 44-42.13S LONGITUDE: 152-42.84E
COURSE: 110T SPEED: 4.3kt
WIND_SPEED: 17kt WIND_DIR: NW SWELL_DIR: NW SWELL_HT: 2.5m
BARO: 1009.1hPa TREND: 2 AIR_TEMP: 16.0C SEA_TEMP: 15.0C
COMMENT: Dark night. On course for Stewart Island.