Tuesday 5th February, 2013
Into another time zone ... GMT + 1hr.
Beautiful sunny start to the day after early morning cloud layer had lifted..Usual 3 or more Atlantic petrels flying about.... but by afternoon, the threatened Cold Front arrived, fog came down close by... It was murky and damp, with some drizzle... everything was grey.... Sea temperature is 11C.
As I stood in the companionway, looking at the dismal scene, in seas that had quickly built up & were throwing us about a lot and 20kt wind from NW, a Wandering albatross suddenly appeared out of the gloom - fairly young, judging by its brown mottled back - made the day seem far better! And then another one appeared - mature ... 'splashes' of white on dark upper wings and pure white back ... great to see the two of them ! Watched them until they disappeared and went down below to have some freshly-made, very welcome, hot, thick soup - spent a time making it this morning and by this afternoon, with the cold, damp weather, was really pleased to have done so!
Wih the increased wind, we were making good speed, despite the uncomfortable seas, but around dusk, the wind suddenly switched off - the Front had passed, pressure started rising from a low of 1017 ( had been 1029 at midday yesterday and 1021 mid-morning today) and wind slowly but surely backed from NW to WSW ... and on... Very light S wind likely to last for a day or so before WNW wind arrives.
Gybed the mains'l ... This evening, we're now making just over 2kt... and expecting light S wind!!
Made light contact with Steve on 'Silas Crosby' - they expect to make landfall tomorrow morning. Excellent contact with S.Africa stns now on 20m.
J-P on 'Virbac Paprec' is in safely.... good! And Acciona also lost its keel - ??? Three .... is 3 too many!
24hr DMG at midnight local time (2300GMT): 128 n.ml. Cape Agulhas: 799 n.ml. Cape of Good Hope: 780 n.ml. ... Hoping to round those next weekend... My waypoint, well S of C. Agulhas: 483 n. ml.
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For my positions, see:
www.svnereida.com - 'Travels' - "Where is 'Nereida'?"
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/