Evening all,
Well I am almost half way across the South Pacific Ocean and still enjoying life at sea. I have built quite the routine of sleeping through the night (or trying to), having my porridge in the morning, reading the weather and any emails, sending back my position report to my amazing shore crew who are keeping an eye on me and keeping me safe from afar. I then do a deck check before lunch which is again my Arbonne Protein shake with some Salada’s and cheese and spend the afternoon doing any required odd jobs around the boat or simply reading my book/s.
Dinner is a freeze-dried meal with some more reading, deck check again and then back to bed. It’s a very simple life and the only thing that I would have liked to have but didn’t get was just a few alternative things to do apart from reading. Don’t get me wrong, I am a book worm at heart and never leave home without one in my bag, but I would love to have something to test my mind against. I didn’t get the chance to download games or buy that puzzle book I was wanting before I left and given that my hard drive of movies was also left behind, it has been 4 weeks of books or conversations with myself……….. until today.
Today I made a happy little discovery. I have been trying to edit some film to send some footage back and decided to boot up my tablet. Something that I haven’t had a need for yet and has had a flat battery. So, when I was looking for camera cables I discovered the tablet charger…..Win. ……..Yes!.... I have discovered a little treasure of games, brain teasers and jokes. I loaded them on years ago and never really used them……… but they are now amazing. It will be the first bit of variation in my day for 4 weeks. It’s still charging so I haven’t yet had a chance toplay but I am just SOOOOO EXCITED. I will be sure to let you all know what I find the best games on it are.
So aside from spending half the day going through all the lockers looking for this one camera cable, I have been rolling around in an easing breeze. The waves are still huge. Some of them up to 8 meters in height and I am now sailing into them not with them making things a little more uncomfortable. This morning when the winds had dropped below 20 knots I shook out the 3rd reef and unfurled a little bit more of the no 2 jib. By this afternoon, the winds had dropped to 10-15 knots so I changed to the No 1 head sail and just kept it furled a touch. I haven’t seen anything over 13 knots in hours. The wind is forecast to drop off even more so I am looking at finally shaking out the 1st reef. This will be first time in the whole trip... Hopefully this will help me lay a little better with the swell as I make my way south.
Light winds again tomorrow but then on Saturday my time I will be sailing into a tropical depression which will give me a stiff breeze. I will also be going upwind in this depression making for more uncomfortable sailing. The swell is easing and I am hoping that in the light winds tomorrow I will get the chance to change out the wind generator blades so that I will not need to use the generator quite as much. Ihave enough fuel to complete the tripbut I would like to keep as much of it as possible up my sleeve as an emergency backup.
I am also counting down the days until Cape Horne, I know I keep harping on about it but sailing past the horn has been a dream of mine for years. One that will come true in less than 2 500 nm so a little over 2 weeks. EKK. I just hope that the weather gods are kind and give me the conditions suitable for sailing close enough to see land. Anyway, that’s it from me for now, as I have a big day of jobs I want to complete tomorrow. It’s off to bed for me after I shake out this reef.
Goodnight
#capehorn
#lisablair
#climateaction
