d'Albora's Action Project: AUS 360 Blog Update
Presented by Pivotel
Afternoon all,
Well things have been cruising along well enough given that I am still sailing close hauled and living a life on a 45 degree angle. I did manage to make some good miles last night to the South and I am even passing the North West Cape now, although I am still over 100nm offshore. I thought that by now I would be almost sailing out of my 113 degree east limit and need to tack but the winds have been just enough to the west that I have almost made a direct course south. I am sliding to the east slowly but it means that I can hold this for another 100nm before I need to tack and if the weather gods are nice to me I might then be able to do the last stretch of the West Australian coast line on one last tack. Ahh a girl can dream can’t she.
Last night I enjoyed a nice dinner of lentil soup again and was kicking back reading a book when I got a SMS from my mum asking me to call. Warning bells were ringing as this is not typical behaviour for mum. Normally she would let me know why I was calling in her message so I was not looking forward to what ever bad news was coming. I booted up my Fleet One sat phone that is provided by Pivotel and called her up. With a hesitant voice she tells me that my father was taken to hospital yesterday and is in intensive care after vomiting blood. They needed to do an emergency surgery on him to stop the bleeding and he is now in an induced coma but his vital signs are stable. It’s looking good but we need to see how the night progresses. We chatted some more and I then called my sister to see how she was coping and finally with nothing more that I could do I tried to get some sleep.
Mostly the winds have been from the SSW blowing at 20 knots so sailing with 1 reef in the mainsail and the No 3 jib completely unfurled has been working best. Last night I was expecting the winds to ease however they ended up building to almost 30 knots again so I was up on deck in the middle of the night scrambling around trying to de-power the sails. I ended up furling some of the J3 sail away and again lowering the traveler to take some of the wind out of the main sail. It wasn’t perfect but Climate Action Now handled it like a trouper and trucked along into the swell like she was born to it. I seem to have a steady S to SSW 3 meter swell with a long period but on top of this I have a really messy sea state that has been cooked up by this wind so I am often crashing with a shuddering halt off the backs of these smaller but steeper waves
This morning the winds had eased a bit again so I went on deck and re-trimmed the sails for power. I have mostly blue skies dotted with fair weather cumulus clouds with the occasional darker cloud coming over. Once I went below again I got a text saying that there had been no change from my dad which I guess is good news in a way. My sister is at the hospital now so I will get a better update shortly and until then the only thing I can do is wait and be there for my family even if it is just with a phone call. Dad has spent much of the last 10 years in and out of hospital having survived a liver transplant so I am not expecting this to beat him but send your positive thoughts his way to help anyway.
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
