Blog Day 82
Latitude 49 47.85S
Longitude 96 45.39E
Air Temp 2c
Local Time 0039 UTC +6
LIVE TRACKER
Hi All,
Over the course of the morning the winds started to ease as we came out the back of those storm conditions and into the next lull. The sun was shining with blue skies, but the sky wasn't all blue and in sections there were still thick heavy clouds making it impossible to shake out the sails. In the lulls between those clouds we were only getting 10-15 knots of wind but when we sailed under a cloud we were still getting upwards of 30 knots and there were still a few squalls around offering up 40 knots over the course of the morning.
I had managed a bit of sleep last night which was a nice change but I was still trying to nap over the course of the morning while keeping an eye out on the winds. I was waiting for the squalls to stop so that I could hoist the mainsail the rest of the way up the mast as I was still sailing with 3 reefs in the mainsail and the storm jib. As lunch time approached the gap between squalls and winds off the clouds grew further apart and by 2pm I felt comfortable to hoist the Dimension Polyant mainsail and not risk breaking it in a 40-knot squall. I needed to get a jib out so that I would have some steerage while hoisting the mainsail. I was thinking that I would need the No 1 jib (the big one) in the lighter airs but the winds were just a touch too strong at the moment, so in the end I unfurled 3/4 of it and used this to keep steerage while it took me the 15 minutes to hoist up the mainsail.
Once I was done I hung around on deck for a while as there was another band of clouds approaching and I wanted to double check it wouldn't be too much for the No 1 Jib that I have out. It ended up being okay, so I went below and made another hot bowl of porridge to warm me up. It is really cold here at the moment with a 2c air temp. To put this in perspective, I drank a bit of water from my water bottle and got an ice cream headache for it, so I needed to sip the water instead.
Today was also another day to deploy the 7th Bureau Of Meteorology Weather drifter buoy, but the last two are stowed on the other side of the lazarette from the others and it was going to take me some time to dig it out. Each drifting buoy weighs around 37kg and I needed to manoeuvre that over the other stored containers in that compartment, and at this time we were still getting just enough wind to make everything really hard work. I was able to free the buoy for deployment and I was also able to retrieve the last buoy and relocate it to another, easier to reach, section of the lazarette, before going on deck and getting it ready for deployment. I decided to dedicate this drifter buoy to Joshua Slocum who was the very first person in history to sail solo around the world. He stopped along the way giving talks of his voyage and achieved something that everyone thought was impossible. Remember this was back when everything was celestial navigation, hand measuring speed and no auto pilots or wind vanes. The sailors use to either hand steer or balance the sails so well that they could tie off the tiller and the boat would still track straight. I believe his book is called 'Around Alone' but I don’t have google out here to check, but I remember a chapter in his book where he started getting so exhausted and hallucinated someone else, his idle captain, driving his boat through this big storm, so he just went to bed because his hero had the tiller... It is a great read if you can find a copy, and so I wanted to honour him today when I deployed this drifter buoy because without him and others like him, people would never have taken up solo sailing and I may not have wandered down this path in life so thank you Joshua.
With the sunset, the winds died completely and we were left wallowing in 2 knots of wind, Bob's (Metbob) forecast indicated that it would hold like this until Midnight. The winds have since been swinging around like crazy and we have been making some very slow progress to the NE. The winds veered around to the N and so I put a tack in and they have since been trying to decide what direction to blow from and by how much because I am still getting winds from the W, NW, N, NE, E, and back again and anything from 4 knots to 15 knots so I am going to stay up a little longer even though I am tired and would love to sleep. I want to wait until the conditions stabilize with the new winds before going to bed. I would normally take a moment here to thank my degree sponsor however there isn't one for tonight, I know that the end of the trip is near, but if you are at all in a position to sponsor a degree there is still opportunities left. You will be making a huge difference to this project and becoming a part of history with me, and it is now that there is maximum interest in the blogs and social media, so now is a good time to purchase a degree or, if you prefer you can make a donation here.
Alternatively you could visit the Eco Shop and see if there is something there you like from branded beanies (winter is coming, okay I am binging Game of Thrones at sea (PS, I am not sure what she means by that, Mum)), bags made from upcycling the old sails from Climate Action Now, Easy Ovens and of course a copy of Facing Fear which I have been told is a great read, and details the survival story of my first attempt sailing solo around Antarctica where I very nearly didn't live to tell the tale. I also just want to thank those of you who have been sharing the content across socials and reading the blogs, I am still recording the videos, so when I return to land I will begin loading this to share with you all too.
So thank you everyone and goodnight.
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