Wednesday 9pm Checked in to Pacific Seafarers' Net - Jane, NH7TZ, was worried yesterday with no contact, having been busy on deck, fighting the genoa - I'm always so very regular.
Susanne on 'Nehaj' is lying to her JSD (Jordan series drogue), expecting 40-50kt winds - not too happy at being quite as close (~200ml) to the Chile coast as she is but drifting S at present and will clearly keep a good eye on her position as the system passes by. I think she might get around the 'corner' once conditions have eased for her and before the next system arrives - all so very changeable down here that you can never be sure until the time.
Had a useful discussion with Peter, ZL1PWM, on my weather situation over next few days - early on Friday looking like 15kt winds hereabouts.
Seems Susie (GGR 'Starlight)' has a boat coming rather sooner to rescue her well to my west - must be miserable for her in a rolly, wet, messed-up boat, injured and unable to do anything to help herself but having to wait for what is sure to be a difficult rescue - getting safely from a small boat to a big freighter in rough seas is always a problem.
Thursday 4.30am LT Musical moaning of 28kt wind in rigging has died down a lot - wind now down to 20kt and seas lying down too - occasional one still rocks the boat a lot...
Spoke to Uku ('One and All') who's going well in 35+ kt winds just now. We noted each other's positions - we need to keep an eye on each other since he's headed my way, although nearly 600 miles away to my WSW, at present.
Spoke again to Peter, ZL1PWM, about weather situation - Low to our NW coming by over the weekend, behind present system that's moving away to the SE, so best to be moving along the rhumb line towards the Cape before then. Had excellent suggestion on raising the genoa from fellow cruiser-friend Robert in Florida - will get started on that later on in good daylight and when wind and seas down a lot more. Off to my bunk now for some more sleep - very disturbed overnight.
9.20am Downloading weather and clarifying really helpful suggestion from Robert on method of raising sail from water to get it all on deck. Sounds very feasible, although a lot of work involved beforehand, making sure the sail can be brought in under the lifelines, rather than over which is its present situation since it went over the lifelines into the sea. Hoping to be able not to lose too much of the sail back overboard as I switch the ties around.
Wind is slowly easing and backing - now a fairly constant 18-20kt rather than the solid 20kt or more 5 hrs ago, so definitely going down. Seas still making us roll around a lot - they always take longer to lie down than the winds when they get lighter - but I'm hoping today's the day...
Time for breakfast and maybe some coffee, if I stand over the pot as it comes through..
11am (Enjoying my coffee!) Wind 18-20kt, with seas getting slightly less but big wave still coming frequently to roll us about - need then to hang on really tightly! Drifting more S than earlier, with wind having backed to NW now.
Taking my time to visualize all that I need to do to get that sail out of the water - quite a few preparatory steps needed to make sure it comes in safely below the lifelines and not over them - that runs the risk of breaking them with the loading.
One step is easy - I'll use my starboard pole downhaul and block to pull in the sail using the genoa winch - the line already leads back to close to the winch so is perfect for the job - I expect to work with the wave action, winching in when we roll to leeward and the sail goes slack briefly.
I have to sort out my present lashings and re-do most of them, maybe abandon some, to make sure the sail isn't tangled and can come in smoothly under the life-lines. The suggestion is to let the clew and tack go, with the halyard safely holding the head while it's winched in bit by bit.... A slow process, maybe, but it should work.
1900GMT (=1300LT) - end of Day 64. We ended up 35 n.ml.(DMG), measured in a straight line between the two points over the 24 hr period, from yesterday's 1900 GMT position.
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 64 (by daily DMGs): 6648 n.ml.
Distance from Cape Horn LH (to ESE): 1,208 n.ml. Surprisingly, ten miles closer than yesterday.
Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to Winlink.org and Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign of kc2iov):
TIME: 2018/12/06 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 46-48.18S LONGITUDE: 096-20.81W COURSE: 183T SPEED: 0.7kt
WIND_SPEED: 17kt WIND_DIR: NW SWELL_DIR: NNW SWELL_HT: 4.0m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 1015.8hPa TREND: 0 AIR_TEMP: 14.0C SEA_TEMP: 12.0C
COMMENT: Hove-to still. Seas a bit calmer but frequent big wave - have to hold tight!