Wednesday 9:15pm Reported in to Pacific Seafarers' Net as usual, at 0310GMT on 14300kHz - Jane, NH7TZ, Net Control from Kauai, was clearer than she has been of late - she's happy to keep contact for as long as possible, even though we're now in the Atlantic.
Winds around 15kt from WNW - being on a close reach, headed just W of N, meant pounding into the seas ahead - never a comfortable point of sail.
Thursday 2:30am Close to dawn. Just changed on to starboard tack, in advance of wind veering to N from nearly NNW - the Low that will pass right over Uku, on 'One and All', will be passing E to our N sometime today but should only give us fairly light winds by comparison with the 30+ kt Uku will experience. I trust he'll stay safe - he's very experienced and ready for the event to happen - he said he'll keep going under just a storm jib probably (no mainsail - he'll drop that).
A beautiful sight when I went on deck to tack around .... Bright moon high up, ahead of us, a silver-bright Venus above the W end of the orange/yellow strip of light on the S horizon and a clear sky overhead. The wind and seas were well down and suddenly it felt so much more peaceful - I felt myself relaxing...
9:30am A solitary Black-browed albatross circles around. Clear sky has been replaced now by total grey overcast as the Low passing by to our N brings its cloud. Wind light just now and from N-NNE, with seas still well down - maybe 1-2m/3-6ft. We're just bouncing and rocking gently in the slight swell as we sail NW, close-hauled still, making just 3kt.
Wind could increase as the Low, heading E, passes closer - N wind now indicates it's still to our NW-NNW. When our wind is from the E, I'll know the Low is N of us.
Midday Wind NNE-NE so our course is now NNW. Total cloud cover still, slight rain.
Just got back down below - feels as though I must have been two hours on deck... Had to free the main halyard which I spotted a couple of days ago had got behind mast steps near mast top. Normally have strong twine in place between steps to stop that happening- but clearly not there now. Involved lowering mainsail completely, freeing halyard and finally raising mainsail again - without anything else getting caught anywhere. Suddenly realised that present very light wind gave an ideal time to sort it out. Sounds simple and quick - but was definitely not so!! All done now, ready for needing to hoist more sail later - as it was, I could not hoist full sail or even with a first reef - bad news in light winds!
2:45pm Just had a call from Megan Thomas, CBC Victoria - interview for an item updating on progress, to be broadcast later today or tomorrow. (Thanks to Luis Soltero and Redport/GMN for making that possible)
Wind has veered enough that we're nearly making our preferred course - will have to ease sheets from now until on a broad reach, as wind veers more over today and tonight.
1900GMT (=1400LT) - end of Day 85. We made 58 n.ml. DMG over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Daily DMGs getting smaller and smaller...!
Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 85 (by daily DMGs): 8,523 n.ml.
Distances (at 1900Z): Cape Horn LH: 620 n.ml. to SW; Falklands: 193 n.ml. to SW
Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to Winlink.org and Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):
TIME: 2018/12/27 19:00GMT LATITUDE: 49-42.17S LONGITUDE: 053-34.59W COURSE: 348T SPEED: 2.5kt
WIND_SPEED: 8kt WIND_DIR: NE SWELL_DIR: NW SWELL_HT: 1.5m CLOUDS: 100%
BARO: 996.4hPa TREND: -2 AIR_TEMP: 11.0C SEA_TEMP: 10.0C
COMMENT: NE of Falklands: 200ml. Total cloud, drizzle, as Low passes over to N
