Things on-board have been variable to say the least. Yesterday I had rather mild conditions comparatively to the last few days however by sunset I was once again sailing in 28 knots and punching into the swell. It is quite a strange weather pattern that I have been sailing in down the west coast of Australia. Mainly because there are none of the tell tails that wind is due expect for what I can see in my weather reports from Bob and also what I can see in the grib files. Normally when you have an increase in winds you would have the barometer rise or fall more than 2 millibars in an hour and if their is a change in systems then the cloud formations would also change. For me out here their has been none of that happening.

Well, the weather simply can't seem to make up its mind at the moment on if it wants to have really strong winds or not so strong winds... It has made the last 12 hours slightly hellish. Yesterday was a lovely day the sun was shining the winds were 15-20 knots in a happy range and the swell was down but somewhere after dark it all went down the drain. I was expecting an increase in the winds and was thinking that it would likely settle around 25 knots so when the breeze started to fill in around sunset I went back on deck and put the reef back in so I was now sailing on the 1st reef. Putting reefs in on this boat along is a rather simple task and only takes me a few, however, shaking them out always take so so long. Anyway, so I was on deck and put the first reef in. Climate Action Now seemed happy just sailing along with the 1st reef and the J3 smaller headsail so I went and made some dinner.

esterday after all my bitching and moaning about the small problem with the autopilot I decided to plug everything back as it was with boat speed transducers etc and re-boot the whole system. To reboot the system I wouldn't have any instruments or autopilots to control the boat with. At the time the winds had eased to around 15 knots so I figured that for the 1-2 minutes that the boat was out of control I would not really be risking any damage. I needed to be in the nav station to hit reboot so I just took the gamble that the boat would likely round up and put itself into the hove-too position and drift sideways while I reset everything. Without dropping sails or putting the boat into hove-too myself before doing this there were very little options.

I have to admit that I am starting to go a little stir crazy with the unbelievable bad luck I seem to have had with the winds on this trip and now I am having an annoying little issue with one of my autopilots.

Well the conditions haven’t changed much out here over the last 24 hours.  I am still crashing off the tops of waves and the wind is still blowing anywhere between 18 and 27 knots.  I guess the real difference is that the wind has moved to the direct South now so I am not able to lay a direct course South but instead will be needing to tack my way down.

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. 

It has been another roller coaster of a night for me out here with the winds holding at 20 knots from the SSW and the swell is still in the 3-meter range. There wasn't a whole lot that I could do on-deck yesterday as I was still just trying to cover some ground to the west and sail out to 112 degrees east before tacking South. Bob McDavit (Metbob) has found a nice current for me to pick up and ride south out there but I have to get their first. I was still 80nm away at sunset so I was looking at all night on the port tack. This is fine and the boat was handling the waves well but unfortunately, my bunk is on the port side so it was another night of sleeping against the lee cloth rather than comfortably against the bulkhead wall.

Welcome to the roller coaster ride. Since yesterday afternoon the winds were quite light blowing at a nice 15 knots from the west allowing me to get some Southerly direction in on my course. It was the annoying speed that was too light for my smaller J3 sail but also blowing too hard for my larger J1 sail so after umming and ahhing about it for well over an hour at sunset I decided to play it safe and keep the J3 sail up. I was aware that more winds were due to arrive in the night and I didn't wish to risk blowing out my J1 sail as I will likely still need this before this trip is over.

Well, I have certainly found the wind... Yesterday afternoon the winds were blowing in at 5 knots and I spent most of the day in light winds however I was aware that there was a change coming and that I needed to be prepared for 20 knots from the South. This new breeze hit just at sunset as the sky was filled with reds. The winds went from the NW to the W and then to the SW. They then proceeded to build to 25 knots in the space of 10 minutes so I madly changed my jib over from the J1 which is the large sail to the slightly smaller J3 sail. I also wasn't expecting that the winds would stay strong for too long so I decided to de-power the mainsail rather than put a reef in as I didn't want to have to shake the reef out an hourr later.

Wow, what a busy 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon after taking a closer look at the weather it seemed that I might be starting to get into some rougher conditions soon so I decided that it would be a good idea to make sure everything around the boat was in order before said weather arrived. The winds had shifted to the North again so I was sailing in a fairly flat boat with the code zero up in 10 knots of wind while I completed my chores. I ended up getting my washing soaking, re-organised the bags on the bunks so that I could collect things easier, re-packed away any tools and just did a general tidy up. I also ended up sponging out the bilges in all compartments however there was only really water in my lazarette.