POSITION REPORT ON FRIDAY 8 MAY 2015

The Alba Chronicles
Neville Howarth
Thu 7 May 2015 19:52

POSITION REPORT ON FRIDAY 8 MAY 2015 AT 0800

 

23:00S  172:02E

So far we've done 750 miles with 220 miles to go, we did 125 miles in the past 24 hours. We've got 15 knot ENE winds and 2 metre waves.  It's just started to rain, so the trough is approaching, but no wind yet. Here's what we did yesterday and overnight.

 

7 May 2015   New Zealand to Vanuatu (Day 6)

I think that we've finally settled into this passage.  It was sunny in the morning and the seas were only a couple of metres high.  Despite being 20 degrees heeled to port all the time, we had a very pleasant day.  It was totally overcast in the afternoon, but warm enough that it didn't matter.

 

I checked the engine compartment this afternoon and there was about a litre of water in there, which I'm hoping is just some existing water in the aft bilges filtering through.  I'll have to do some more detailed investigations when we get to our destination to sort out this irritating problem.  The good news is that the adjustment that I did to the PSS seal a few days ago seems to have worked because it's not making a knocking noise any more.

 

The latest weather forecast shows the low pressure trough hitting us around dawn tomorrow, so we're continuing to follow a course 50 miles to the east of the rhumb line.  This will allow us to head west when the wind backs to the north-east (or even north).  We're expecting 12 hours of rain and gusty winds and not looking forward to it.

 

The weather stayed pleasant up to midnight with steady 20-25 knot winds although it was very dark with the thick covering of cloud.  A few rain showers passed over us giving a little more wind, but nothing too bad.  The worst thing about the night was waiting to see what the trough will bring.