West of Darwin - Day 12 - 12 05.739S 101 50.750E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 17 Sep 2013 08:50
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Steady winds overnight, good speed, clear skies and a good
moon - much better! The winds have come up this morning to 20-25kts gusting a
little higher, and the seas are up to a good 3 metres with the occasional group
being higher. (The bigger waves always come in pairs or a small group, very
rarely on their own). As seems to be the case with the southern hemisphere
oceans, there's a lot of confusion in the seas when the winds get up with the
local wind swell conflicting with ocean swell and we roll when they
collide. It's now very much like the Pacific was when we had winds up at this
level. We have enough sail up to keep us going around 6.5kts as that's all we
should need and generally it's not too bad, but the bigger
cross seas do generate a significant roll. Possibly as a result of
that we have half a dozen or more dead flying fish scattered around the
deck. They must have taken off just as we rolled and the boat collected them up
just as if it were a net! The swell is on the quarter, but with our double
headed rig, having it directly behind gives a better balance and much less roll.
Unfortunately if we did that we would be going in the wrong direction! The
noon-to-noon run was a good 159 miles. Put the clocks back again on Sunday
evening so we gained another hour and we're now on GMT+7, so getting closer
to UK time.
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