Blog Day 33
Latitude 52 34.86S
Longitude 117 24.92W
Barometer 1014
Air Temp 6c
Local time 0200 UTC - 9
LIVE TRACKER
Hi all,
Well today has been a fun roller coaster that makes everything from going to the loo to cooking extremely difficult but all in all I have had a great day at sea.
Last night after passing through Point Nemo and then putting together the blogs and video updates it was 6 am by the time I went to bed and yet again the sun was up. I managed to get a solid 4 hours of sleep while Climate Action Now was racing along surfing waves at extreme rates and regularly hitting 20 knots. The top speed was 22 knots this morning. I had left the sails at the 2nd reef in the mainsail and the storm jib last night. Although it was a little bit too much when the winds were gusting, it was perfect when the average winds were blowing at 25 knots from the SW to WSW. The swell was between 5-6 meters and because she was racing along so fast, we would occasionally wipe out and suffer a minor knockdown. Nothing too drastic, or anything that concerned me, but I was quite impressed with my sleeping skills to actually get some sleep in those conditions.
I woke up at 10 am to check on everything and then went back to sleep until 2pm before I finally couldn't sleep anymore. I know I have been living off fumes for the last week, but my body was saying get up, so that’s what I did. Another lovely hot breakfast of porridge and then it was simply a stay indoors day, due to how often the waves were breaking across the boat and we were getting those minor knockdowns. I went on deck at sunset just to check everything and make sure it all looked okay before nightfall. It was freezing cold but fine. The misty clouds from this morning had moved off a little and there were some patches of blue trying to break in along with a lovely sunset. I ended up being on deck for almost half an hour, just enjoying it, before finally going below.
Just 10 minutes later and I was in the navigation station reading my book and waiting for the time to go and change over the micro plastic samples, I felt another knockdown occurring. You can feel the wave come underneath the hull, and pivot us to starboard, before thrusting us to port. I braced on the side of the hull with my hands and initially thought it was going to be a normal slap down, nothing to dramatic. Only, as I was braced, the g-forces continued to increase, and we continued to be thrust over to port until my body was lifting off the seat. I braced a little harder and you could hear the noise of tones of water cascading across the decks and we laid over on our side - mast in the water.
Climate Action Now is a monohull, sailing boat (one hull) and as such she has a keel that is under the boat. This keel is lead and normally they weight 40% of the boats body weight. If you are wondering how I can get pushed so far over and not roll all the way, well it’s the counterbalance of the keel taking place. As it moves further from the centre of gravity it gets heaver. So, after we laid over Climate Action Now popped right back up, shook off all that water and carried on like nothing had happened. Meanwhile, a few things had gone flying from one side of the cabin to the other.
I knew the boat was okay as I could feel her taking off again, but there was this odd vibration from the wind generator on the port side that needed attention. It was still working and spinning but as I looked it appeared that one of the blades had snapped off. I grabbed my life jacket and then crawled my way back to the stern of the boat and after stopping the wind generator from spinning it was rather clear that there was an issue, and I was right in my assumptions that one of the blades had snapped clean off. I have figured out that this happens if the wind generator hits the water while spinning. They spin so fast that the shock is enough to snap the blade and so I normally tie off the wind generator on the low side to avoid any damage.
This time however we weren't sailing in anything too rough, and the wind generator had been clear of the water for all the other knockdowns, so I hadn't tied it off. The starboard wind generator is still out of action as well, so I was trying to get as much power from the system as possible. Now I am left with two damaged wind generators. I will be able to replace the blades as I am carrying three spare sets, but I need some calmer conditions to do that in. In a couple of days it looks like I will be getting my wish so I will wait until then to fix it.
After that excitement I spent the rest of the night getting the footage of the CCTV for you all to enjoy and I had a quick dinner of freeze dried Mexican that was okay-ish.
There are no degree sponsors to acknowledge tonight so I just wanted to say that if you are interested in supporting this project I am still seeking to raise another 49 degree sponsors to cover the costs associated with the project. I really need your help to reach those targets so if you can please take a look at the 360-DEGREE information to see what you get and remember, due to our partnership with the Clean Oceans Foundation it is TAX DEDUCTABLE. Otherwise, if you are enjoying the content that I am putting out and want to support, please consider making a donation via the website (not tax deductible) or by purchasing a book, beanie or bag from the shop
Thank you all again for joining me on this adventure and together we can influence a better future with Climate Action Now.
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