Wednesday 27th March 2013
Dull, cloudy start to the day... and more rain later on. Seas still well up and often still tossing us around and washing the decks, although they did seem to lie down a little by late evening... Cold, damp air - cabin at 14C.
Current weatherfax shows wind likely to remain good and from SSW-W for next few days - but then High pressure area settling by & over Tasmania will become a possible problem straight after Easter. So, having spent a LOT of time this morning, poring over possible strategies, I decided to head more S now, while there was the wind to do it, to try to get into a position by Sunday where winds around High would not be unfavourable. Also, the hope is to get slightly more wind by being further S, rather than the very light winds close to High's centre, and also to keep from being headed. In two day's time, more big swell could be coming our way - could cause a problem if wind gets up as well - we'll see ...!
Few birds around - three white-chinned & a soft-plumaged petrel, a prion, and an albatross with dark upperwings and back - probably a Yellow-nosed, from the rather thin black edges to its underwings - it didn't come very close when I was on deck looking...
Spent some time reading...The best place to be when the boat motion gets too violent is in or on my bunk!
Contacted several people in 'VK6-land'( Perth area and W.Australia) - I'd been told of the frequency they use as a local means of communication (useful for farmers & others in the outback) so I tried it out! There's another for Eastern Australia also. Later made several US and Aussie contacts, and an unexpected S. African one, and chatted for quite a while this evening - I'm anything but isolated at the moment!
Late this evening, went on deck to unfurl some genoa, with boat speed having dropped in lighter wind... The full moon was lighting up the clouds so much that it was like semi-daylight - it was amazingly light and very easy to see what I was doing without my usual headlamp.
DMG at 1100 GMT: 144 n.ml. - despite 'zig-zag' path today ... nice!! C. Leeuwin: 519 n.ml. (324T); King Island (entrance to Bass Strait): 1024 n.ml. ; SE Cape of Tasmania: 1129 n.ml.
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For my positions, see:
www.svnereida.com - 'Travels' - "Where is 'Nereida'?"
and/or:
http://www.exactearth.com/
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