Monday 3.20pm It's fairly bright but we're now in fog. The sun tried to get out earlier through the usual overcast.. Must be a thin sea-fog because the sun is often almost visible. The outside air is full of tiny droplets, anything metal on deck is covered in drops of water and I'm definitely feeling cold.
The wind is anywhere between N and NNW - it keeps shifting... enough to need to make frequent small changes to the windsteering (Fred!)
I finally had some breakfast at lunch time having had nothing this morning, while busy working (always a worry that stronger weather will come in before I've finished), and I'm still drinking my coffee.
It's pleasing to have had a productive morning but I'll need to keep an eye on my lashings to make sure the kicker stays in place.
4pm Well, the wind is really backing steadily - now from NW. We're presently headed on a very broad reach and I'm waiting to see if we will soon need to gybe around...
Was nice to chat with Rick, VE7TK, on 14160kHz - propagation to British Columbia is often not bad around this time.
6.30pm Still thin fog around as darkness is falling - it's usually dark by 7pm.
8.30pm Wind has stayed pretty consistently from NW but has been at 18-22kt for a while now - so we're making good speed in roughly the right direction - always good!
Chatted to other boats not too far away after giving position and weather report to Pacific Seafarers' Net - Mark (1300ml away) on 'Maverick', Susie (1600ml away) on 'Starlight and Susanne (800ml away) on 'Nehaj'. Uku (1250ml away) on 'One and All' is also nice and clear during the regular Golden Globe weather update session that I listen in to an hour before. Good propagation between all of us just now on 20m and also on 40m maritime bands. Susie is having a problem with her wind steering system - I'll speak to her shortly to see if I can help her in some way. Also made a few contacts on 7160kHz afterwards - Matt, W1MBB, is very obliging and people know they can come there for a quick chat, if they wish.
Tuesday 10am The sun has not quite managed to get through either the earlier thin white layer of sea fog nor the present light cloud layer but it's quite bright out. We're still sailing downwind and seas are a good 3m/10ft or so, making it quite rolly. Wind has stayed consistently up at 18-20kt from the NW, overnight and into this morning. From weather info, that looks set to continue for a while, possibly backing more to WNW later today. Occasionally, it gusts to 24kt - we're making good speed!
1900GMT (=1100PST) - end of Day 55. We made 138 n.ml.(DMG) measured in a straight line between the two points, over the 24 hr period since yesterday's 1900 GMT position. A good day's run...
Position & weather report posted to Winlink.org and Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign of kc2iov) not long after 1900 GMT:
TIME: 2018/11/27 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 38-21.26S LONGITUDE: 110-48.27W COURSE: 117T SPEED: 6.0kt
WIND_SPEED: 22kt WIND_DIR: NW SWELL_DIR: NNW SWELL_HT: 3.0m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1016.8hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 18.0C SEA_TEMP: 17.0C
COMMENT: Early thin sea fog, now overcast and dull