Thursday 11:15am LT (Thursday 2115 GMT) Ship's clock now changed two hours forward to Tahiti time from New Zealand time, so our local time (LT) is now ten hours behind GMT/UTC, instead of twelve hours ahead, and we're back into Thursday 4th July - a repeated day! Glad to have been keeping a regular note of GMT time/date - avoids confusion.
Bright, sunny day with plenty of cloud around. Wind has been up a little since sunrise and it got pretty rough again - being well tossed around, just as this time yesterday.
12:30pm Feeling quite tired so going to lie down for a short sleep, having spent quite a time checking weather and our likely course over next week or so, insofaras made possible by forecast winds.
Made another course change - to 016T, towards Iles Australes, passing Rurutu tomorrow, and then on to pass just W of Tahiti and Moorea early next week. Original plan was to pass E of Tahiti but E winds forecast when getting closer make that likely to be untenable, so I'm playing safe by passing W instead, giving a better wind angle and avoiding the problem of possibly getting too close to a lee shore.
3pm Pleasant sailing conditions in bright sunshine with small white clouds scattered around. Swell not too often wetting side decks and gusts occurring less often but wind still well up at 22-25kt, so making good speed, although always heeled over.
10pm Keep thinking I should let out some of the genoa I furled in around sunset, ready for overnight - but then see wind still well up around 24kt so think better of it.
11:25pm Unfurled the headsail (genoa) a small amount more - our speed kept dropping enough that our course suffered. With just a little more boat speed, easier to keep to a course... To my bunk, with alarm set to check on our course - we're approaching the Austral atolls so I need to keep a good eye on where we're headed.
Friday 5am LT (Fri 1500 GMT) Dark night with sky a mix of mainly hazy stars with some cloud, no moon visible. Going well... adjusted our course to come slightly more off the wind - presently from ESE at 20-23kt.
Two tiny specs of red show on the AIS 'night mode' screen where Rurutu and Tubuai lie in relation to us - one is 36ml to NNW, the other is 90 ml to ESE. On course now for a waypoint well off Moorea - several days away still.
7:30am Bright, sunny day with plenty of white cloud around and seas still tossing us around quite often. Heeling to 25 kt, gusting 29kt, ESE wind.
8am Passing small atoll of Rurutu but it's too low and far away to see it.
Decided to take in 3rd reef, with wind gusting to 30kt again - but halyard caught on a mast step near top as sail was dropped... Will need to head up and release halyard more to sort it out - but waiting until finished diverting past a seamount upwind just now - sea depth changes rapidly nearby from well over 6,000m to just 600m in a few miles. With already rough seas, it's likely to become even rougher close to the underwater peak - probably another old volcano.
9am Just realised .... we've officially passed into the Tropics - now being well N of the Tropic of Capricorn since our latitude is now 22d 40'S. Must celebrate that today - party time... if it calms down a bit! With weather forecast showing these conditions not improving until Sunday at earliest, might have to postpone the party for a time but enjoying party snacks of 'special foods' can still go ahead and was delighted to open some mango juice to have with my breakfast this morning - highly appropriate!
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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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1900GMT (= 9 a.m. LT = Tahiti time) - end of Day 275. We made 120 n.ml. DMG, measured in a straight line between the two 1900GMT positions. A better day's run again... nice to see!
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 275 (by daily DMGs):22,425 n.ml
Distances (at 1900GMT): East Cape, N.Z.: 1801 n.ml. to SW; Tahiti: 310 n.ml. to NNE; Tubuai (Iles Australes): 90 n.ml. to ESE; Rurutu (Iles Australes):21 n.ml. to NE.
Position, as posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/07/05 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 22-44.49S LONGITUDE: 151-02.48W
COURSE: 352T SPEED: 5.2kt
WIND_SPEED: 23kt WIND_DIR: ESE SWELL_DIR: ESE SWELL_HT: 4.0m CLOUDS: 40%
BARO: 1022.8hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 23.0C SEA_TEMP: 28.0C
COMMENT: Diverted to avoid seamount - back on 016T soon