Wednesday 20th March 2013
9am Up early to gybe the mains'l back onto starb'd and pole out headsail to go downwind in W wind of 15 kt or more (difficult to guestimate the wind strength but plenty of white horses!).
Had plenty of company under grey overcast skies - big skua was back again , chasing off some of the other birds - prions and petrels. Still heading ENE - aim is to get to 43S - don't want to get too close to Australia as I pass by to the S. Latest grib files just downloaded show that latitude should be fine for next few days of big swell. Threatening strong conditions in a few days' time look to be rather less at that latitude.. but there'll be other systems coming along, I'm sure - this is a stormy piece of ocean .. and all weather forecasts involve a big element of chance, with winds often a lot more than given.
Had good contact with E coast at 0015-0030 GMT this morning, but less good with W coast - possibly needs to be made slightly later there.
4pm Busy cooking! Felt famished come lunch-time and decided chili con carne would be nice. I'd also soaked some beans ready for a thick soup - so that has kept me busy in between downloading several weatherfaxes and replying to some emails - I'm way behind there...
Long contacts tonight on radio as we were tossed around in the ongoing big swell and wind of around 20kt... surfing often but not too much. Sunset was at 6:30 pm / 1130GMT - but hidden by cloud. Saw moon briefly, much later - but sky still mainly overcast.
DMG at 1100 GMT: 104 n.ml. C. Leeuwin: 798 n.ml.; WP due S of C. Leeuwin : 561 n.ml: King Island (entrance to Bass Strait): 1853 n.ml. ; SE Cape of Tasmania: 1916 n.ml.
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For my positions, see:
www.svnereida.com - 'Travels' - "Where is 'Nereida'?"
and/or:
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/