Friday 25th January, 2013
Sun finally got out and clouds disappeared soon after midday to give lovely warm sunshine for the rest of thday - cabin got up to over 20C!.
New time zone on crossing longitude 22:30 W ... now at GMT- 1 hr
3 Great shearwaters seen near boat early this morning, as I was changing stays'l over to starb'd (off its pole) . At same time, reduced genoa in the stronger and more veered, NW wind. Seas were up also - a good 4m ... A pair of Arctic prions later in the day and the shearwaters again - quite handsome, big birds, brown on top with white rump, black tail and cap and mainly white underparts... soaring a lot.
We're sailing well (made 150ml DMG today!) but it's definitely become more 'boisterous', with waves regularly splashing onto deck.! Later, with even more wind, reduced genoa more - to just a handkerchief now -and we were still making 6.5kt of boat speed!
Near sunset - around 8:15 pm - a line of cloud had appeared in the W... but not spreading fast .. As the sun was setting, the bright moon - two days off being full, was in clear view, later making a silver path over the sea ... beautiful ... along with the brighter stars..
The wind, surprisingly, calmed down a little, with nightfall - but not for long, I'm sure - forecast is for it to increase gradually until tomorrow night and Sunday it's 30kt or more.
Before things got any rougher, decided to cook an early evening meal of onion (fresh) and asparagus(tinned) omelette - tasty!
With bad weather ahead, over the weekend, downloading frequent updated grib files... takes a time, with slow radio connection now. No radio contact with Patagonia Net in morning now - too far... although still OK overnight on same frequency when chat with other boats. Contact with S.A.M.M. Net is improving as distance to S.Africa lessens.
We're now closer to S. Africa than to S. America - we've come over halfway!!
24hr DMG at 10pm local time (2300GMT ): 150 n.ml.(excellent!) Cape Horn 1947 n.ml. away (SW). E. Falkland: 1459 n.ml. (WSW), S. Georgia: 925 n.ml. (SSW). Gough Island: 477 n.ml. (ENE) - 221 n.ml. SSE of Tristan da Cunha, uninhabited except for group of 7 scientists on 6-monthly posting for research (U.K. possession, leased to S.Africa). Cape Agulhas (southernmost Cape of Africa): 1912 n.ml. - closer, now, than Cape Horn!
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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/