Monday 13th December Day 49
Mixed day of hot sun with good wind and sailing conditions, starting and ending with areas of rainclouds causing either sudden strong wind, resulting in lots of exercise, or almost no wind and consequent low speed... and on into overnight. (Making 3.1kt due S at present, in 8knots of east wind..!)
Short periods of activity (in building winds) apart, it's been another day of relaxed 'catching up' with jobs....
Finished looking over all zips - including the one on the immersion/survival suit, loaned to me by Warren when visiting on Orcas Island in October on my
way north. I sprayed it with PTFE and made sure it moved up and down OK. I also had a good look at the suit, although I didn't, as I'd been advised would
be a good idea, get into it to see how that went... The suit sizing, I noticed was 'Universal Adult' and definitely claimed to cover my end of the size spectrum
- so although Warren is a lot bigger than I am, the suit is supposed to fit me also! Hopefully, like the liferaft, it's something I'll never actually need.... but
I'm keeping it handy. Another zip I tried to fix (three, in fact!) was on a 9 month old fleece top - with seawater exposure and an aluminium zipper, the mix
guaranteed total failure - so I ended up with a zipper-less zip, three times over... How anyone can provide jackets and tops for boaters making use of
aluminiumn zippers is beyond belief - guaranteed they'll corrode and break and/or stop sliding once the seawater sits in contact with the metal...
Checked over to see where all my locker top and emergency hatch fixings are stowed - to be ready for really strong conditions. In case of broaching, or worse, in very bad seas, I can fix in place all lids in openings (to dry locker, fridge, cabin sole, etc) to prevent lids and contents from falling about the place and damaging either me or the boat.. (That's assuming they're already locked in place when things are getting pear-shaped....)
I got out two books - my only bird book (of albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels) and 'Laxton's Pacific Crossing' that I'm trying to get back into, having borrowed it for a few days in Pt Townsend - to read before leaving!
I'm even up to date with emails at present....
Some fabulous cloudscapes around today. And at sunset - tops of towering cumulo-nimbus were turned pink in setting sun. Before that, lovely rainbows
near a series of showers falling from clouds.
My check-in around 2220-2230 UTC with the Maritime Mobile Net on 14300 kHz is resulting in some confusion. It's getting very difficult to make contact now, so different people are acting as relays and posting my position on Shiptrak and/or Winlink ... with the result that my positions have sometimes been showing up as for some other boat - presumably because the person posting my position has either quoted his own callsign or has quoted my callsign incorrectly. So today, for instance, I heard of a nearby boat, at my Sunday position, with KC2OLV on board... mmm!!
24hr DMG to this morning: 128 n.ml.
At 1200 UTC: Easter Island 580 ml due E; Chile 2410 ml; N.Z. (E. Cape) 3080 ml; Cape Horn WP 2828 ml SE; Mexico 2935 ml.