d'Albora's Action Project: AUS 360 Blog UpdateBlog 4.12.18
Afternoon all,
Change is in the air as the new Northerly winds have filled in. Yesterday afternoon the winds were blowing mostly from the west however they would shift around a bit from 250-280 Degrees. As I was still trying to hold a course of 120 Degrees I needed to often alter my course by a little port or starboard to catch those wind shifts. It was something to keep me busy. By midnight the new winds had arrived so I dragged myself out of bed and went on deck to put a gybe in. The winds by now had also eased so I was sailing in 15 knots of true wind making for some slow progress however it did make gybing Climate Action Now an easy process.
Depending on the conditions it takes me around 5 minutes to gybe Climate Action Now. Its something that I need to do in a controlled way especially if I have some large swell rolling us around and is not the type of thing that I could do in a real hurry like round the cans racing teams do but by following a procedure and making sure that the mainsail is always under control I can and have safely gybed us in very high winds. I think the highest was 80 knots of wind during my Antarctica Circumnavigation. Last night was a simply gybe and it went off without a hitch allowing me to re-trim on the new Port Tack and get back below to my warm sleeping bag.
The new winds were blowing in from the NW to the N and have been jumping between the two for most of the night and morning so again I am altering my course to keep the wind angle to same on the boat. I am still sailing in 15 knots of wind, however, I am making better progress now as I am sailing across the winds rather than with them so I am creating my own apparent with a wind angle of 80 degrees and have been able to maintain 7-8 knots with the Full mainsail and the large J1 headsail out.
Now I am sailing into fewer winds as there is some influence from a High-Pressure system ahead of me and it looks like the winds are going to jump around a bit over the next few days so that will give me something to do.
I managed to get some sleep last night however with the late to bed I was still tired when I woke up at 7 am to do a radio interview with ABC Great Southern out of Albany so I ended up deciding to go back to bed and nap a bit longer. I must have been quite tired because I didn't end up getting up again until lunchtime local time but I feel worlds better for having the extra sleep. Its also continued good news on my Dad as he is now awake and talking in the hospital so well on the way to a good recovery. I think it will be a few more days yet before they start looking at discharging him but it is all great news so we are very happy.
Presented by Pivotel
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
