20/03/2022 Day 26
Latitude 53 46.34S
Longitude 151 44.281W
Barometer 996
Air Temp 4c
Local time 0316am UTC -11
Hi All
I know I keep bashing on about sleep in these blogs, but it really does seem to be hard to come by at the moment. I ended up making myself a deal last night that I would try to get to bed for midnight so that I could force my body to change time zones which might allow me to sleep during the night rather than the day. Day sleeping just doesn’t seem to be as deep, so I was really trying to make it happen. Unfortunately, I didn't get to bed until around 3am local time but I still celebrated it as a win because it wasn't sunrise yet.
I was so ready for bed by the time I climbed in. The winds had been jumping between 15 knots and 22 knots all evening, so I was comfortable in leaving the first reef in the mainsail. I also had up my no.2 head sail and the storm jib. I heated up my hot water-bottle, brushed my teeth and climbed into my snugly sleeping bag, not even an hour later the alarms were going off and we were losing steerage because there wasn't enough wind. Gahh. I have to say it took quite the mental prep talk to convince myself to leave the warm bunk and climb outside on deck to shake out the last reef in the mainsail. I knew that the lull wouldn't last but the winds haven’t been above 22 all night so I was happy enough to go to the full main sail.
My hands were on fire by the time I climbed back into bed and my hot water bottle was suddenly no longer as hot as it was, so it took me a while to warm up. It was now nearing dawn and I really needed to try for some of that sleep. At 9am my alarm went off to check on things and we seemed to be making great time, sailing between 8-10 knots in mild conditions and the winds had now backed from the west to the south-south-west allowing me to alter my course to 100 T from the 140 T I had needed to maintain until then. I was able to get another sleep in after that before finally sucking it up and getting up at around 12 noon and feeling like all my eyes wanted to do was sleep.
The rest of the day was fairly normal with my routine now well established it was a hot breakfast, filling in the log book, sleep research journal, sleep reaction test and then on deck to check and monitor the wind, sea conditions and double check my sail plan and trim. Change the micro plastic filters at 5 pm and 7 pm and then grab a bite to eat.
Tonight, I wasn’t hungry enough for dinner, so I made do with a protein shake from Arbonne and a oat bar. I went on deck just after dark to coil away some lines and to re check the trip. The winds had now moved right around to the South so I was now sailing up wind on an apparent wind angle of 080 T so I needed to trim on. While I was trimming on the mainsail, I noticed that the starboard wind generator was vibrating a lot, causing the pole it was mounted on to shake. I recall yesterday also hearing it sound different, so it was time to investigate. I was hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was and instead just the blades being miss aligned. Once I stopped the blades from spinning and got a closer look I knew I was right. Two of the three wind generator blades were broken, They are built incredibly tough out of carbon fibre so they weren't broken all the way through but enough to stop there efficiency.
I knew exactly when this damage must have occurred and that was when I had that knockdown the other day and the mast went into the water, the wind generator would have been submerged too with the blades spinning and the hi rotation would have been enough to damage them. I normally tie the lower one down to avoid this as I have broken the blades like this before during my last record but the other day it slipped my mind between the sail changes. I needed to replace them before I could continue using the system. This isn't too much of an issue as it’s just a matter of unbolting the hub, taking it below to replace the blades and then re-bolting it. My issue is the fact that I needed to do this over the ocean. I have spare blades, but they are a packaged set as each blade is matched with its counterpart to ensure balancing and lower vibrations. I will attempt to make a repair tomorrow if I get the time before the new winds arrive but we are expecting a front to hit tomorrow night at sunset with gusts up to 45 knots so I might run out of time.
I also went to drain out the lazarette compartment by turning on the electric pump only to hear water gushing out in the lazarette compartment. I climbed back to take a look and found the exact same hose as last time broken in half and the water was going nowhere from the pump. Well, it looks like I have a little bit of a job’s day ahead of me tomorrow as I make a new repair and I also plan on re plumbing the lazarette compartment to minimize any more back wash into the boat if that hose broke again. It was the black premium flexible bilge hose but I guess it just doesn't like the cold.
With tomorrows bad weather and likely long night ahead I am going to sign off but before I do I wanted to thank the following amazing degree sponsors.
Thank you to:
155 West - Independent Travel Advisers - Kris Higgins - Thanks to Kris who saw me on Studio 10 and signed up to support right away, thank you.
153 West - d'Albora Marinas - Akuna Bay, Pittwater NSW - Thanks to d'Albora Marinas for your support. This marina at Akuna Bay is in such a lovely location with a great cafe and function room upstairs right in a national park. It’s well worth a visit if you are in the area.
Thanks all and good night.
Goodnight all.
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