d'Albora's Action Project: AUS 360 Blog Update
Presented by Pivotel
Afternoon all,
Well last night was a night of frustrations with lots of light winds. I have managed to have about 2 knots of current against me from the East Australian Current that runs down the east coast of Australia so even though my boat speed was up around 6-7 knots in 8 knots of wind I was only making 4 knots in the right direction. When the winds eased further to 6 knots in the night my speed suffered dramatically and I was only able to make 2 knots for the remainder of the night and into the morning. The winds also shifted quite a bit from the South East to the West and back again keeping me on my toes.
The good news is that I did manage to get some sleep finally last night. The shipping was a lot less than the night before with me sailing past 6 ships in the night. This allowed me plenty of time to fit in those 20 min naps. This isn’t a perfect system and I think that I will likely be feeling tired for the whole of this circumnavigation but somehow it is a manageable amount of sleep. It is quite unusual that people sleep in the short naps like this so I have partnered with the Woolcock Sleep research institute and they are studying my sleep patterns and what effect this has on my capabilities. Throughout this whole circumnavigation around Australia I am wearing a fitness tracker that can tell when I am sleeping, I’m also completing a sleep diary and a reaction test. This is basically 4 boxes on a screen and a black x flashes in a box and I need to then push the corresponding key to match. It is a way to measure my reactions and to see if when I am really tired if my reaction is impacted and by how much. I am really looking forward to seeing what this data shows at the end of this and hopefully what we learn from my sailing can then be applied to others.
I am now sailing past Evans Head after being becalmed off Iluka for most of the day. The winds are filling in to a nice 10-15 knots E to NE breeze and I think it may even reach 20 knots later this afternoon before again dropping back to light winds. My lovely following winds are also ending as the breeze is due to move to the North for tomorrow so I will be once again healed over and beating to windward however given the less pleasant weather due I was able to spend most of today completing some jobs around the boat.
The most important one being that I needed to get the fridge working again... It was working fine on departure and then just stopped working so after phoning a friend I was able to by-pass the controller and operate her manually so I am happy to say that the cheese is saved.....
Freeze dried food is a staple for me at sea and it is not the best to have over a long trip like this. Basically it is a pouch of dried goods that you add a cup of boiling water too, let sit for 20 minutes and ta-daaa dinner is served. So for me I like to mix up the meals a bit by adding some sauces and lots and lots of cheese so the fridge was an important one for me.
Well with a likely sail change on the horizon I am going to try to get some sleep before nightfall so I update you all again tomorrow.
Thanks to the following Sponsors for all their continued support: d’Albora Marinas, Pivotel B&G, Australian Geographic, Zhik , Park Fuels, Karver, 3M, White Bay 6 Marine Park, and Great Circle Life Raft
