What a lovely day! Clear sky, swell down & sea much gentler (hardly any of the tumbling crests on steep waves of Monday to knock the boat about), wind lessened so we're not going quite as fast... but still making around 6-6.5kn, so that's fine. Shook out the first reef early this morning so full canvas now.
Feeling refreshed after a good sleep, despite jumping up & down a few times - had radar on 'watch' & it kept objecting loudly to clouds that got too close - no ships seen this night!!
Picked up 21(!) little flying fish off the decks & finished the last of my Bali mangoes for breakfast - yummee!
Had a look at my weather info - looks as though that 'near-gale' warning rec'd yesterday (SE ~40knots) relates to a system that should (I hope) have its strongest winds between 30&40deg S - well S of me, although it might well generate a fair swell heading my way by end of week - we'll see. Winds on my course over next few days look unchanged from present SE Trades at 15-25kn (they do tend to vary quite a bit in strength).
I'm hoping that maybe my system setup has been the cause of my A.I.S. problem - I went in to the setup to see what settings I had & found my threshold for the signal was way higher than it should have been - I've lowered it but won't know if it's working until I see a signal on-screen (or hear the alarm go off) - frustrating to have no way to test it at present with no boats within range - 'Bowtie Lady' is over 55mls away so no help there! Running radar all night really chews up power - had to run my generator this morning. I forgot about option to let it 'catnap', just waking up every so often to take a look around...
Later: Well, today has been altogether excellent & enjoyable, with good news in my emails to complete a nice day! Seas a little up this afternoon, but still OK & wind still from East - would be better if veered a touch to ESE again to put us on less of a run - but I'm not complaining too loudly! Forecast looks good for next 4-5days - if grib files are to be believed.
Have just started up radar on timed transmit - wakes up every 10 mins for 20 scans & then goes to 'sleep' again in between - less power consumption that way.
Would be nice if a ship came within 16miles to test if A.I.S. is working or not - would save radar use if AIS were seen to be OK.
24hr run today: 165n.ml by log (148ml by GPS midday posns)- quite a noticeable foul current at present. 1676 n.ml. to go.