COG 315T

SOG 6.5kts

No sooner had I posted yesterday’s report than we received the welcome news that EmilyLuna had set off the night before and was 145nm behind us. The new repair seems to be holding up so no more leaking with the added bonus of a working engine when needed.

Although we are in the SE trade wind it cannot make up its mind whether to blow from the SE or SSE. The difference determines which tack we need to be on for the rhumb line. It was particularly frustrating last night when the wind dropped right down, veering then backing much more quickly than than the self steering could adjust to. As a result both the mainsail and genoa were being back winded and slatting from side to side. Apart from the disturbing racket this makes it is a prime cause of wear and tear. After an hour or so things seemed to settle down to a firm SE wind which meant we needed to gybe to avoid heading south of west. I was all geared up and ready to go on deck when the wind veered again to the SSE.

This morning the wind changed its mind yet again and is now blowing steadily and strongly from the SE. We have gybed onto a starboard tack but left the pole out to port. This seems to work and we are heading back up to the rhumb line. No doubt we will need to gybe several more times but if we don’t need to change the pole from side to side then we can do this easily and quickly.

The other change in the weather has been the clouds. As far as St Helena we just had Altostratus cloud varying between big patches and continuous coverage. Now we have Cumulus, Stratocumulus, Cumulus mediocris and Cumulus congestus - the latter bringing wind and heavy showers. Cumulus congestus is only one stage away from Cumulonimbus and that is one formation we can really do without. This suggests to me less stable air as we head up into the tropics and indeed the pressure is forecast to progressively fall. I have to laugh when writing this because In order to identify the cloud types I dug out our copy of “The Cloud Spotter’s Guide” by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Did you know that clouds are categorised into Genera, Species and Varieties? I didn’t and it occurred to me that I could write a long and informed post about the various cloud types. However that might be rather tedious for all of us so I recommend the book.

My repair on the arm of the Duogen seems to be holding up. Until today we have used Dewie continuously and the batteries have been fully charged despite running the freezer. Overnight however the alternator became noisier with what sounds like bearing wear. This is disappointing because we changed the old style bronze bearing for a better stainless steel version in Thailand just over a year ago. It is still working but the casing seems to be warmer than I recall. Today we have raised the Duogen and it is sufficiently sunny for the solar panels to do the charging. We’ll use the Duogen at night and on particularly cloudy days in the hope that the reduced usage will allow it to keep going for longer. We may need more than just a replacement arm in Antigua.