Half Way and Some Good News
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Fri 28 Aug 2026 01:21
Course: East Speed 6.5 knots
Wind: S, F4 moderate breeze
Sea state: moderate Swell: SW, 2 meters
Weather: partly cloudy, occasional showers, mild
Day's run: 154 nm
We continue to make excellent progress, having reached the halfway point between Australia and New Zealand at around midnight. Thus far we have sailed 630 miles for and average of 6.6 knots, which for old Sylph is very good.
The weather pattern is being dominated by a high pressure system sitting over Australia at the moment, so we can expect S to SW winds for the next several days. The prognosis has a low pressure system spinning up over Cape Reinga (as they often do) in the next 24 hours or so. At the moment my weather facsimiles for this area only go out to 36 hours so my forecasts are a bit limited. I tried listening to New Zealand's voice forecast over HF this morning but it is very broad brush, covering a large area, and its focus is mostly to the South and East of New Zealand, so it isn't very helpful. One has to listen carefully for a long time to extract a short piece of the forecast that is relevant to where we are.
I shall be watching the low pressure system closely via Australia's weather fax service and will attempt to download some grib files this afternoon. Hopefully by the time we are approaching Cape Reinga in three days from now, the low will have moved off and/or dissipated. As mentioned yesterday, for now we will aim to stay well South of our rhumb line so as to be able to bear away if the winds intensify as expected.
Some good news of a non-sailing nature to share. A few days ago I received a text from my friend Ada. She had a PET scan done last week and I am allowed to say that it showed her cancer is clear, indicating that her treatment has been very effective. We are hopeful that with continuing treatment she will have many years of quality life, including getting back into some sailing, ahead of her. Indeed, it was wonderful that she was able to join the crew of Katinka to see Sylph off last Monday. (We are very lucky in Australia to have such a good public health care system, by no means perfect, but very good.)
All is well.