Thursday 25th April 2013 Happy ANZAC DAY! Remember them...
Photos of flying fish that arrived overnight Mon/Tues and of rolling hitch used temporarily to attach extra line to damaged genoa sheet , to lead on to winch.
1:30pm Spending an age trying to get a radio connection for emails - nothing so far - possibly a busy time and middle of day is a notoriously bad time to try, despite what propagation tables are saying......! But propagation is also not good anyway, today.
6:45pm Just finished re-connecting what had been a broken, corroded wire which should have been bringing power down from starboard pair of solar panels... With lots of gentle persistence, I unexpectedly persuaded the loose end of the broken wire inside the pole to peek out so it could be held on to and pulled out more. I'd actually given up on the idea but decided to give it one last try since the job would be so much easier if I could succeed in that. I tried to maximise the length of wire available by cutting the butt connector close to its broken end in half and then cutting away the outer crimped section - took a time and a lot of effort but managed it finally and it was worthwhile for the extra bit of bright, uncorroded wire it gave. Had to cut away about 2cm/1" of the other broken end, it was so corroded, but then was able to use a fresh butt connector surrounded in adhesive heat shrink to make a good, well-protected join (see photo). Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll see twice as much power coming in from the solar panels. In daylight, I'll protect the wires from the sharp edge of the hole in the metal of the pole.
Tomorrow's job, if it's still as calm as expected, will be to look at the gas supply to the galley - presently not flowing and the gas solenoid valve is the prime suspect....
It's been a mainly bright, almost cloudless, sunny day, although there was a light, short shower mid-afternoon - all very pleasant and it got quite hot in the sun, especially under the companionway awning. Warm enough to have a cold meal tonight of tuna with chick peas and mayonnaise - easy and quick with no cooking & so no gas needed.
Tonight, the wind backed further - to SW from W, so we're now goose-winged, with genoa poled out to port and boom well out to starboard on preventer, sailing slightly by the lee to stay on course. Will almost certainly need to gybe tomorrow morning, as wind backs even further with High moving slightly W.
D.M.G. over 24hr to 10am LT: Just 68n.ml. Sydney: 1040 n.ml. (255T); New Zealand's North Cape: 227 n.ml. (161T) Norfolk Island: 217 n.ml. (300T)
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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/