Monday 3rd December 2012
How different from yesterday! Clouds all day - often very big masses of raincloud - with the usual accompanying squally conditions, speeding us along at over 7 kt, with nothing in between - so struggling then to make our course at 1-3 kt. Swell well up, at nearly 3m and from both E and NE - the new wind direction...
No work on deck today with the squally conditions - except to take advantage of the rain to try to clean the cockpit windscreen which is covered in lots of small salt marks - difficult to remove. I'd decided that I needed to see to my tangled mess of hair and treat myself to a shower - but squalls kept coming along & getting in the way. I finally managed it - bliss!! - but found an absolute "raster' mass of tangled hair in one place that took quite a time to deal with! Nice to have warm air to dry off in... I also washed a few clothes and towels, making use of the calmer periods.
Sailing was difficult, with the wind forever changing direction and strength... It had become ENE early on, but kept veering madly in the squalls, so our course was really squiggly - until I got fed up with the gusty, variable conditions and switched to the autopilot! I really wanted that shower in peace!
Later I managed to catch up on nearly all outstanding emails - that feels good!
24hr DMG at 3pm: 110 n.ml Cape Horn 3378 n.ml.away & our nearest land: Pitcairn Island, 859 n.ml. to the SW. Easter Island 867 n.ml. away to SSE & the Gambier Islands are 1014 n.ml away to WSW. We're presently about 2435 n.ml. W of Lima, Peru.
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For my daily position and track:
See my website's 'Travels' page - go to www.svnereida, open 'Travels', then click on "Where is Nereida?"
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/ - courtesy 'exactEarth' using their polar-orbiting satellites -, especially good nearer the poles, i.e. should be good when in the Southern Ocean.
Unfotunately, having run out of lithium batteries for the GPS tracker unit, the other website can no longer keep my track up-to-date - it stopped on 17th November...