Wednesday 10th April 2013
Tried making a US contact on 20m around sunrise - absolute bedlam!! So many European stations, all calling simultaneously on frequency, that contact was impossible!!
Nice sunny start to the day but grey cloud slowly spread over to replace the broken light cloud to give rain ahead of approaching Cold Front which started with the occasional light shower, just after Pac Sea Net at 1.30pm LT, and very slowly got heavier... with rather increased wind also. There was a good long break before darkness fell around 6pm, but there was more later. Have been making excellent speed all day- mostly ~7kt this afternoon and 6kt earlier. Wind increased more this evening, as Front got closer and wind began to back - will end up from SW-SSW finally, overnight sometime - will need to gybe to maintain our course. In the meantime, since night time, reduced genoa, adjusted Fred to more off the wind and eased the sheets a touch.. Having to keep an eye out tonight for that wind shift....
Dug out a data cable and connected the two laptops together in hope of getting info from laptop with no working screen - no joy... The working (backup) one I'm now using is too basic (only running Windows 7 Starter) and can't be used to set up a Home network with the other laptop, as had been hoped... So no way, while I'm at sea, of getting data from laptop I've been using up to now - meaning no acces to old emails nor to the many email addresses I'd accumulated more recently and which hadn't been copied onto this laptop.- ones to which I'd hoped to send emails now... frustrating!
Been trying to catch up with replying to emails - taking a long time... but it's lovely to get them!
Still downloading frequent weatherfaxes and gribs - weather is getting quite complicated and need to avoid Lows which are expected to form just off the Aus coast... one near Sydney in a few days' time and another further N, off the Queensland coast, very soon.
Having a Chicken Tikka Masala tonight - but not one I've made, as I've done before, ... being lazy - using a freeze-dried packet!
Later ... Getting rough!! It's still raining at times and seas are up - not so very big but close, so tossing us around quite often ... and wind is definitely up around 25+ knots. I've furled away the genoa completely so we're just under stays'l and double-reefed mains'l - and still making nearly 6 kt. Disturbed night again - can't sleep for too long in case any ships come along - and the wind will be backing over the night, as well....
D.M.G. over 24hr to 9am LT: 91 n.ml. Hobart : 104 ml (084T); Sydney: 532 n.ml. (009T); New Zealand's North Cape: 1081 (086T)
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For my positions and track, see:
www.svnereida.com - 'Travels' - "Where is 'Nereida'?"
and/or:
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/
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