Blog Day 86
Latitude 46 02.651S
Longitude 112 30.362E
Barometer 1010
Air Temp 10c
Local time 0145 UTC + 7
LIVE TRACKER
Hi all,
Well, over the early hours of this morning the winds started to build at 2am so I went on deck and put the first reef in the mainsail. I was still sailing with the full No 2 jib out and making some great speeds. I finally went to bed at 4am before waking up at 1100 to do the micro plastic sample change. I can’t say that I managed much sleep as we were sailing in 25-30 knots of wind, up wind and my bunk was on the high side on port. I have 4 pipe cots on the boat, the top two are used as storage for emergency equipment and clothing and the bottom starboard bunk is also filled with gear like camera gear etc. So, this only leaves me with the port lower bunk to sleep in. When that bunk is on the high side of the boat, I spend most of my time in bed trying to wedge myself in, so that I don’t get tossed out if we have a knockdown or similar... The bunk is attached along the wall side and the inside edge is attached to a rope pulley system that allows me to alter the angle of the bunk, the pipe cot is simple, an aluminium frame with netting stretched across it. When we are healing over this much, due to sailing upwind, I need to angle the bunk up high to allow the bunk surface to be mostly flat even if the boat is leaning. This gives me an opportunity to actually stay in the bed. I also have the Lee Cloth to hold me in place as well. This is sewn into the centre edge and is like a big flap of fabric that I tie up on the bottom and top edge to prevent me falling out. All of this is great until you need to wriggle your way into this now very small area. Last night I was struggling to sleep in a space that was shoulder width wide and just enough height to wiggle my way over from side to side, but it is easy to get tangled up in your sleeping bag when the bunk is set like this. If I am facing the centre of the boat and sleeping on my right, then I need to have a knee wedged up to brace against the Lee Cloth as well as have an arm there to stop me face planting into it all night. If I am facing the other way, I end up sleeping right on the hard aluminium bunk frame and getting bruised, so it is not ever an easy sleep in these conditions.
I was still tired after my 4 hours in bed, so I went right back to sleep after changing over the micro plastic samples. An hour later, sleep was no longer an option as the winds built further. It was time to go on deck and put the 2nd reef in the mainsail. The forecast showed that I would be getting an average wind of 27 knots true and up to 40 knots in the gusts. As I am sailing into it, my apparent wind, or the wind that I am actually feeling will be well over 30 knots most of the time. I finally got on deck when it was 12.30 pm and started setting the reefs. Considering the fact that I wasn't using the mainsail at all at the moment, and that the winds were due to increase, I made the decision to skip reef 2 and jumped directly to reef three.
I was then able to balance the boat a little better, but we were still overpowered, and I needed to put a little of the jib away. I needed to get below and complete the second micro plastic sample, so I did that before returning to the deck and partially furling the no 2 jib away to effectively put a reef in it. Everything settled down a little then, and after tidying up the lines I was able to finally get a little sleep. My speed had dropped a touch with the sail changes which was a shame, but not much I could do about it in these conditions.
The rest of the day and into the evening was much of the same. Life on a 45 degree heal is like living on a roller coaster. You are trying to sleep, make food, use the toilet, and moving around the cabin always requires three points of contact, two feet and a hand or two hands and a foot. You need to step, brace for the wave, and then step again, so everything is a little bit tougher. At midnight I noticed that I have less than 130 nm left to sail to the turning point at 45 South and from there I will then be able to sail directly for Albany. It does look like those weather gods are testing me again, because it looks like some varied conditions leading up to Albany. Hopefully we get a good run of it and not stuck in 30 knot northerly winds... Currently it is showing a large area of light winds that are variable (blowing from any direction) and then filling in from the North before bending to the NNE. Then after the next front the winds switch to the NNW to NW allowing me to make the final run to Albany.
Bob's (Metbob) ETA gives a window of the 25th/26th of May, but I am hoping that I might be able to cut it down a little bit if the weather is kind. It has been a great experience working with Bob and collaborating on the safest path through all those storms in the Southern Ocean. So, thanks Bob for being such a great support and for not grousing on me if I ask for an alternative route to be run. Bob would often route me around the storms and sometimes I would ask him to re-run the modelling if I went through the storm to see how bad it might get. Bob was always right, even if I did sometimes go directly through those storms...
And now the winds have eased again, and my speed has dropped, so I am going to wrap up here so I can go on deck and re-hoist the sails and shake out those reefs. Before I go I would like to thank the following degree sponsors.
Thank you to:
109 East - Mary Jane Farm - thank you to Mary, Brian and the team for supporting my project and providing me with some of the best organic freeze-dried foods that you can find. I highly recommend taking a look at their website and food range if you are needing some back-country meals.
110 East - d'Albora Marinas - Pier 35 Port Melbourne VIC - Huge thank you to the wonderful team at d'Albora Marinas, this is a fantastic Central marina location in the heart of the Melbourne City and was great when I visited aboard Climate Action Now before the Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race in 2019. I really appreciate your support.
111 East - Brian Parsonage and Meredith Hinds - dedicated to all the sailing teachers. Lisa was our teacher when we did our Day Skipper course. So, thanks to her and everyone else who has taught me in this sport where you can always learn more. I hope to sail again with Lisa sometime, even though I know she likes sailing by herself, maybe somewhere warmer than Antarctica...
Thanks Brian and Meredith for your wonderful support and I am glad that you enjoyed the course. I am sure that I will be back teaching with Pacific Sailing School later this year after things have calmed down, so do come sailing again. I do like sailing with people too, I promise...
112 East - Envest - Huge thank you to Craig and the team for your amazing support of this record and the citizen science work I can complete while sailing around Antarctica to help us gain a better understanding of our environments. I really appreciate your support.
SPONSORS
TECHNICAL PARTNERS
DEGREE SPONSORS CLICK HERE
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