Please note - apologies, but emails are mostly not being replied to now in order to conserve battery power - a lot less power is needed to download them (please make them short) than to send replies to them. Many thanks to so many of you for sending supportive messages - they're much appreciated!
Friday 9:30am NZT (Thurs 2130 GMT) No wind overnight, nor now - wind died totally after coming up a bit around sunset yesterday.
Getting worried about how I'll get away from here - can't drift around with no steerage in the harbour entrance with big ships possibly entering or leaving. Weather files say there's a SW 14kt wind now - but that's not happening here...
Need to get mainsail repair finished to be ready to leave at a moment's notice from Sunday onward - if a suitable breeze comes up then, must be ready to take advantage of it and get going immediately...
Before going on deck, ran generator - seems to be putting in more than before - saw 95A going in initially and only dropped to 45A after 45 minutes run time - good news! Hope that continues...
2:30pm Finished putting everything back in cockpit locker after filling diesel tank from jerry cans kept there... always takes a lot longer than expected.
300 litres in tank plus 25l 'emergency' fuel in reserve. If take 75 days to Victoria, B.C.,(hopefully less, maybe 60 days...?!), that gives 4 litres/day - roughly four hours of generator run time per day - should be plenty, especially since wind generator will be putting in charge a lot of the time.
Still no wind in harbour - but some outside, judging from sea surface appearance. Overcast sky since mid-morning.
On to mainsail repair...
5:20pm NW wind now - perfect direction for sailing away. Just got back down below as light was fading - finished sewing each end of tabling over top torn area of mainsail, so that's done now. Not enough light to continue on - want to improve the middle tear repair. Need to stitch that tomorrow, if weather permits, and maybe reinforce with more material.
Only other job, apart from clearing up, I need to get done is lashing the boom to the mast again - the lashing has been missing since reinserting the sail slides so I could hoist the mainsail so I need to remember to do that also tomorrow - shouldn't take long but now the mainsail is back in use, it's an important safeguard..
Warming up the lentil soup, to be followed by tuna and chick peas with mayonnaise - simple to prepare!
6:30pm Wind has died again... Pressure rose a lot earlier but has been dropping for the last six hours - now 996.1 hPa.
With a lot of timber being moved over the last few days from the open storage area close to our E over to the ship loading area close by to our SW, I noticed the boat is now covered in wood dust - need to get to sea so it can be washed off!
Saturday 7am NZT (Friday1900GMT) First light - dawn not far away. Strong S wind arrived soon after 6am. Now around 24kt here in the protected harbour area - a lot stronger out to sea ... and with a big swell, according to the weather forecast. Expected to continue throughout today, easing later this evening and into Sunday. A good wind direction for making for the harbour entrance to the N of our position. Pressure still low at 996.8 hPa.
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While sailing around the world, I'm trying to raise funds to help support the superb life-saving work done by the RNLI (Lifeboats) in Britain each and every day of the year, regardless how bad the weather. In fact, the worse it is, the more likely they are out there, helping someone in distress - whether a swimmer, surfer, small boat or big ship, night or day, summer or winter. They are all volunteers with normal day-jobs who respond immediately to a call and it is a charity - no government funding - so they rely on our help to fund their intensive training and maintain their equipment.
It would be great if you would take a moment to click on the Lifeboats link here (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Jeanne-Socrates2), if you'd like to show your support for my efforts at sailing solo, nonstop, unassisted around the globe, trying to set a World Record as the oldest person to do so, by donating something towards the great work the RNLI do every day. If a lot of people put in even a small amount, it all adds up... Thanks a lot! If you can help, it will be very much appreciated. Let's see if we can reach my target!
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Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 247 (by daily DMGs): 20,126 n.ml.
Position, as posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/06/07 19:00GMT
LATITUDE: 44-23.37S
LONGITUDE: 171-15.69E
WIND_SPEED: 24kt
WIND_DIR: SSW
CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 996.8hPa
TREND: 2
AIR_TEMP: 11.0C
SEA_TEMP: 12.0C
COMMENT: Tied to mooring buoy in Timaru Hbr, N.Z.