A bit of a wicked fairground ride for most of the daylight hours
– and despite my pills being magic – they’re not so magic as
to allow for doing a killer sudoku or reading on the big dipper! Stayed
hard on the wind until around 2pm when it started to go round more to the south
so for the rest of the day we were fast close reaching (9kts) on port tack with
boisterous seas for company but at least we are now pointing towards Oz instead
of New Caledonia!
After dinner (which we didn’t have) the seas did start to calm down a bit
and the wind got up so we put a reef back in the main and had a comfortable and
quite quick night. Currently have fairly pleasant conditions with 2
– 2.5 metre waves and 10k wind from the south, not much chop, sun and
about 20% cloud cover. Cruising along at around 7k. According to the
gribs, we expect to wind to die off as the day goes on, as we pass the north
edge of the high to our south. We may lose the wind later in the day and have
to resort to motor sailing for a bit. Expecting to emerge into northerly
quadrant winds on the other side, and should be able to bear away a bit more
southerly towards Sydney
in a couple of days. No sea creatures, 2 ships on the AIS (but about 20
miles away) and of course the usual sea birds and Michael at 6.30pm and both
Michael and Rankin from Gypsea Heart (also ion New Cal) for
company at 9am today!
24 hour distance: 182 miles