Current Position: 12 33.633’S 125 03.045’E; Local Timezone: UTC+8 SOG: 5.0; COG: 255; TWS: 18 kt; TWD: 115; Distance to Waypoint (Ashmore Reef, 278): 127; Total Miles Sailed: 9848 nm; Engine Hours: 230; Estimate Fuel: 60+10+50;
Comments: About 16:00 I started seeing gusts over 20. I already have two reefs in the main and the jib is rolled one turn (to reduce wear and tear on the leach tape). I am not expecting winds over 25. The forecast suggests I may arrive at Ashmore Reef late in the day on Sunday (48 h from now), probably not enough time to safely navigate to the moorings, so depending on how many miles I make in the next 24h, I will pace myself the next 24/36h, arriving at the entrance to the channel by 14:00 on Sunday or slowing down to go in Monday morning. The wind is slowly backing. It is currently 115 and in 4h probably 90 on its way to 70. When 90, I will tack. At 17:00, near sunset, I was seeing sustained 20 kt winds with gusts of 25 that were overwhelming the windvane. I furled in 25% of the jib to better balance the sails with the double-reefed main, and this solved the problem with the boat rounding up. At 19:00, the wind had backed to about 100. However, I am not as far S as PW predicted. It may be close to midnight than 20:00 before I need to tack. But, the wind is supposed to die down then until dawn, and if it dies, it may not be necessary to tack until morning. At 21:00 it was blowing 20 from 95 and the speed was aided by a 1 kt current, so it was not a good time to tack. The current would eventually rotate clockwise in the direction of the tack. I was still only two-thirds as far S as the course recommended by PW. By 23:00, the wind had decreased to 16 and backed to 70 as predicted, so I jibed to a new heading of 285 (waypoint 272). The current would rotate to that course soon. A Brown Booby was on the solar panels and none too happy to be scooted off when the boom swung across them. While resetting the preventer, there was a general call for assistance for a “vessel in distress” from a shore radio, but the coordinates were too distant for me to be of help. By 1:00, the wind speed had dropped to 10, as predicted. By 3:00, the wind was in single digits and the windvane was struggling, so I switched to the TillerPilot. Sailing against a current, the SOG was less than 2. The wind direction was 78. Around dawn it will have veered to almost 100 and it will be time to tack again. It is 5:40, 10m to sunrise. I tacked and cleaned the bird poop off the solar panels. I unfurled the jib but left the main double-reefed. There is 4 kt of wind and an opposing current, so I am effectively standing still. I downloaded new GRIBs. PW now says I will arrive Tomorrow midday, but I believe that is optimistic. For example, it thinks I should be doing 5 kt now. I am planning to push as hard as I can, but only so I am certain to be in place Monday morning for the passage into the lagoon. Besides the Cartier Island, there is an oil platform (Montara Venture) I need to avoid. The latter shows up on AIS. At present, there is a group of a half dozen fishing trawlers just S of the oil platform. The sun has come up. It is hazy, almost foggy. There was a fog warning on an earlier forecast, but not the present one. As expected, with the sun comes a breeze, 6 kt at first, but enough to drive the boat 1.5 kt against the current. 30m after sunrise, there were double-digit winds, as expected, driving the boat 2-3 kt against a cross current. I grow weary of the shallow waters and temperamental winds. Des wrote ai should expect more typical sailing conditions from Ashmore to Christmas Island. I put a fishing line in the water at 6:30. At 7:00 I started getting gusts of 15 and SOG of 4. At 11:30 the wind picked up to 22 and I went to the cockpit to adjust the windvane when I noticed I had a fish on the line. It looked like a small long-tail tuna. Just as I got it on the deck it flipped off and overboard. The Coral Night, a cargo ship that was anchored at the oil platform for the past 24h, will pass about 4 nm off my port about 1:30. About 12:50, I caught a second one of the same fish, about the same size, and was raising it out of the water when it flipped off the hook. In between hooking the two fish, I ate some leftover pasta, so called it a day and did not put the line out a third time. I will try again tomorrow. The distance sailed towards Ashmore Reef in the last 24h was 201-127=74 nm. The total distance sailed was 9848-9777=71 nm (71/24=3.0 kt avg.). Note this discrepancy is due to the current.
Comments: About 16:00 I started seeing gusts over 20. I already have two reefs in the main and the jib is rolled one turn (to reduce wear and tear on the leach tape). I am not expecting winds over 25. The forecast suggests I may arrive at Ashmore Reef late in the day on Sunday (48 h from now), probably not enough time to safely navigate to the moorings, so depending on how many miles I make in the next 24h, I will pace myself the next 24/36h, arriving at the entrance to the channel by 14:00 on Sunday or slowing down to go in Monday morning. The wind is slowly backing. It is currently 115 and in 4h probably 90 on its way to 70. When 90, I will tack. At 17:00, near sunset, I was seeing sustained 20 kt winds with gusts of 25 that were overwhelming the windvane. I furled in 25% of the jib to better balance the sails with the double-reefed main, and this solved the problem with the boat rounding up. At 19:00, the wind had backed to about 100. However, I am not as far S as PW predicted. It may be close to midnight than 20:00 before I need to tack. But, the wind is supposed to die down then until dawn, and if it dies, it may not be necessary to tack until morning. At 21:00 it was blowing 20 from 95 and the speed was aided by a 1 kt current, so it was not a good time to tack. The current would eventually rotate clockwise in the direction of the tack. I was still only two-thirds as far S as the course recommended by PW. By 23:00, the wind had decreased to 16 and backed to 70 as predicted, so I jibed to a new heading of 285 (waypoint 272). The current would rotate to that course soon. A Brown Booby was on the solar panels and none too happy to be scooted off when the boom swung across them. While resetting the preventer, there was a general call for assistance for a “vessel in distress” from a shore radio, but the coordinates were too distant for me to be of help. By 1:00, the wind speed had dropped to 10, as predicted. By 3:00, the wind was in single digits and the windvane was struggling, so I switched to the TillerPilot. Sailing against a current, the SOG was less than 2. The wind direction was 78. Around dawn it will have veered to almost 100 and it will be time to tack again. It is 5:40, 10m to sunrise. I tacked and cleaned the bird poop off the solar panels. I unfurled the jib but left the main double-reefed. There is 4 kt of wind and an opposing current, so I am effectively standing still. I downloaded new GRIBs. PW now says I will arrive Tomorrow midday, but I believe that is optimistic. For example, it thinks I should be doing 5 kt now. I am planning to push as hard as I can, but only so I am certain to be in place Monday morning for the passage into the lagoon. Besides the Cartier Island, there is an oil platform (Montara Venture) I need to avoid. The latter shows up on AIS. At present, there is a group of a half dozen fishing trawlers just S of the oil platform. The sun has come up. It is hazy, almost foggy. There was a fog warning on an earlier forecast, but not the present one. As expected, with the sun comes a breeze, 6 kt at first, but enough to drive the boat 1.5 kt against the current. 30m after sunrise, there were double-digit winds, as expected, driving the boat 2-3 kt against a cross current. I grow weary of the shallow waters and temperamental winds. Des wrote ai should expect more typical sailing conditions from Ashmore to Christmas Island. I put a fishing line in the water at 6:30. At 7:00 I started getting gusts of 15 and SOG of 4. At 11:30 the wind picked up to 22 and I went to the cockpit to adjust the windvane when I noticed I had a fish on the line. It looked like a small long-tail tuna. Just as I got it on the deck it flipped off and overboard. The Coral Night, a cargo ship that was anchored at the oil platform for the past 24h, will pass about 4 nm off my port about 1:30. About 12:50, I caught a second one of the same fish, about the same size, and was raising it out of the water when it flipped off the hook. In between hooking the two fish, I ate some leftover pasta, so called it a day and did not put the line out a third time. I will try again tomorrow. The distance sailed towards Ashmore Reef in the last 24h was 201-127=74 nm. The total distance sailed was 9848-9777=71 nm (71/24=3.0 kt avg.). Note this discrepancy is due to the current.