Hope those of you in B.C. have a good long weekend holiday - Happy B.C. Day! I'll be celebrating with you on Monday!
Thursday 2:10pm Tahiti/Hawaii time (Thurs 1400GMT) Been very busy in galley area - a lot to deal with, so not just a quick simple job. Usual weatherfaxes and satpics download is about to start and have had t deal with a power supply problem to the Aurora. For some reason, a 12V cigar plug supply decided to go down - so had to change that plug and check the system was powered up and then re-boot the Aurora software - hopefully, all will be OK from now - pinging seems too be showing everything is back to normal - so I'll get the latest Miami and Hoolulu TC Erick and TC Flossie info now.
4pm Been busy solidly - weatherfax from Honolulu not being transmitted - spoke to Office - she confirmed she wasn't hearing noise of Weatherfax being transmitted - nothing coming out just now - "The 'tech' will be in tomorrow morning"...!!
In meantime, she gave me updated position etc for Flossie - moving 290T at 16kt - excellent - if it keeps that up, will be well out of our way quite soon and heading to NE of Big Island - so they'll be pleased if she misses them! Also seems to be continuing to weaken - now a Tropical Storm.
Our speed is well down now, 2.5kt, in light wind of 5kt or less... Not going anywhere just now ...
4:35pm Brilliant! Just checked out the shower on deck. There's enough water in the tank now to allow the system to be pressurised - and stay pressurised .... meaning the deck shower works - great news!
Heating up my food for later - with no refrigeration in use, need to bring to boil and hold it there for a few minutes each day, to make sure it stays good.
9pm Short rainshower - enough to give more wind so our SOG was suddenly up at well over 5kt - but not for long ... Speed is back down now to around 3kt - rain has stopped.
Downloading latest batch of weatherfaxes - it's nice that, once started, I can get on with something else while they download. Interestingly, they're coming in fine - I reckon someone forgot to throw a switch earlier and that's why they weren't transmitted...!
Time for food and then, once weatherfaxes have finished, to my bunk for sleep... Might check night sky first, if rainclouds have moved away.
10pm Wind well up and from ENE, unexpectedly. Making excellent speed - often over 7kt. Probably just rain clouds but might last overnight into tomorrow morning - good to be making speed one more. Expecting E wind - so maybe that's what just arrived?
Friday 1am Tahiti/Hawaii time (Fri 1100GMT) Making around 6.5kt in rain and ENE wind. Furled in quite a lot of genoa a short while ago, on seeing our speed suddenly go up to 6-7kt, ready for gusts expected overnight. Wind will be up and down as we come under and exit from under rain clouds. Back to my bunk...
5:55am Dawn breaking with vivid colours in a cloudy sky - frequent rain overnight, decks wet. Unfurled some genoa to speed us up from 4-5kt to around 6kt, as rain died away - might have tied in rather too much overnight bt better too much than too little in possibly squally upcoming conditions. Adjusted our course, in wind from NE quadrant, to head for a distance off Cape Kumukahi on Big Island's E coast.
8am Sunny, bright day with lots of scattered light cloud around but very few grey clouds so heavy overnight rain seems to have cleared away. Swell quite big, from NNE at 2.5-3m and quite close, so pretty rolly conditions. Making good speed at 6-6.5 kt. Getting warm already.
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North (Queensland) ABC (Cairns) interview went out on air yesterday morning and a link will be posted once available.
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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, 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!
(I hear that some readers might need to talk to their bank BEFORE trying to make a donation to the RNLI since many US banks routinely block foreign transactions unless
they are notified in advance.)
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1900GMT (= 9 a.m. LT = Tahiti/Hawaii time) - end of Day 303. We made 99 n.ml. DMG, measured in a straight line between the two 1900GMT positions.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 302 (by daily DMGs): 24,925 n.ml.
Distances (at 1700GMT): Cape Flattery LH: 2470 n.ml. to NNE; Honolulu: 633 n.ml. to NNW; East Cape, N.Z.: 3508 n.ml. to SW; Papeete, Tahiti: 1845 n.ml. to S
Position, as posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2019/08/02 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 13-11.50N LONGITUDE: 150-45.85W
COURSE: 332T SPEED: 6.0kt
WIND_SPEED: 15kt WIND_DIR: NE SWELL_DIR: NNE SWELL_HT: 2.5m CLOUDS: 80%
BARO: 1012.2hPa TREND: 2 AIR_TEMP: 32.0C SEA_TEMP: 36.0C
COMMENT: O'night rain cleared away, a few grey clouds - not many;
