Happy Birthday Jenny

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sat 18 Jun 2011 02:40

Noon Position: 26 29.0 S 161 47.0 E
Course:
North nor'west, Speed: 3 knots
Wind:
West F5 fresh breeze
Weather:
Mostly sunny, rough seas moderating slowly
Day's run: 67 miles (0 miles in the direction we want to go in)


First and foremost happy birthday Jenny.

Jenny is my little sister, a wonderful lady, who looks after all my stuff while I am away. Thank you Jenny and I hope you have a great day. Hope to see you soon.

Meanwhile, back in the Tasman Sea we continue to plug away into fresh headwinds making very little progress. Early yesterday morning the starboard dodger window was popped out by a large sea; I won't say stove in, that would be overly dramatic, I have never been satisfied with the way they are secured. Another little job to add to my long refit list.

Then I ran the engine yesterday for a while to recharge the batteries and the revolutions started to run away. I shut the engine down immediately and was relieved that it did in fact stop. When I inspected the engine a trickle of oil came out the air filter so I suspect it was starting to run on some crankcase oil that had made its way via the breather tube into the inlet manifold.

Conditions have ever so gradually moderated and should continue to ease over the next day or so. I checked the engine again this morning and gave it another run. It seems fine for the moment. I will put yesterday's incident down to heeling and rough weather. Overhauling the engine is already on the top of my refit list.

This last 500 miles of my circumnavigation is proving a bit of a bastard. Not to worry, I am in good company. My inspiration and yardstick in my sailing as most would know has been Joshua Slocum. This leg of his voyage took him from Samoa to Newcastle, it took him 42 days and he summarized the passage as “storms and gales”. While we continue on this course we are not closing the Australian coast at all but my strategy for now is to continue north until conditions moderate and try to make as much westing as possible. Once we make contact with the coast I will worry about getting south. At least closer to the coast the seas will not be as bad when the wind is from the west, though shipping traffic will then become something to worry about, but that is a ways off yet.


From the guru:


Be the current against us, what matters it? Be it in our favour, we are carried hence, to what place or for what purpose? Our plan of the whole voyage is so insignificant that it matters little, maybe, whither we go, for the “grace of day” is the same! Is it not a recognition of this which makes the old sailor happy, though in the storm; and hopeful even on a plank in mid-ocean? Surely it is this! for the spiritual beauty of the sea, absorbing man's soul, permits of no infidels on its boundless expanse” Voyage of the Liberdade. Captain Joshua Slocum


Not bad for an old salt.


All is well.