Current Position: 26 57.976’S 37 17.393’E; Timezone: UTC+2; SOG: 3.0; COG: 295 (HDG 330 and 1.8 kt current 240); TWS: 7; TWD: 80; P (6:00): 1013.6; P (12:00): 1014.1; P (18:00): 1013.5; P (24:00): 1014.0; Distance to Waypoint (Richards Bay): 295; Total Miles Sailed: 15250 nm; Engine Hours: 289; Estimate Fuel: 36+10+50;
Comments: It is an hour after dawn and I am struck by how calm the water is. There is virtually no swell and just the slightest hint of wind-driven waves. It has been months since I have seen conditions like this … probably the Arafura Sea or maybe the Torres Strait. I’d like to be making 2 kt more, but the truth is I feel very relaxed after being battered for several months. It is 6:30 and I just downloaded a new GRIB that suggest I should continue to 27s 36e and then make a beeline for RBay. I hit dead air in the morning and if I motor through it I would likely arrive at RBay well before dark on Wednesday. By 7:30 the boat was doing a surprising 5 kt. I took advantage of the stable boat to prepare a proper meal of breakfast burritos. I used some pasteurized pepper jack cheese that I have had in stores for eight months and it was surprisingly good. At 10:00 the wind speed had fallen to 5 and the current was 0.5 and perpendicular to. The conditions seemed ideal for motorsailing. At 1,800 rpm, I had an AWS of over 11 kt and was making 6.3 kt SOG. A fruit vender in Rodrigues gifted me a bunch of green bananas after I explained it would be the last time ai would be visiting his stand because I was leaving in the morning to sail my boat to South Africa. Now, two weeks later, the first banana just became ripe. I have brought many green bananas onboard for passages, but none have lasted so long. The guy must really know what he was going. The bananas were in the back, not for sale yet, because he knew it would take two weeks for them to ripen. What a treat. I am now about 200 nm off the coast of South Africa and seabirds have appeared again. Because the waters are so calm, I am not in survival mode, hanging on for dear life, so I have been able to do chores more easily … cleaning, repairing, cooking, etc. i have been making a lot of fresh water that I have been using to clean the boat. I even had a spa day … got a hot shower in the cockpit, treated my brined skin, etc.. I figure I have another 36h of this and I will start seeing the aftermath of the low that has been working its way up the coast … then the party will be over. Fortunately by that point I should be less than 2d from RBay. I have been motorsailing since 10:00, 4.5h, and as expected, I am beginning to reach a zone with double-digit winds, the point at which I felt comfortable returning to sailing. I turned the engine off at 2:00. I am 145 nm from 27s 36e and 365 nm from RBay. The wind is blowing 10-13 from 50 and a 1.4 kt current is now WNW, contributing more to the 5 kt SOG. As it usually does, the wind dropped near sunset and the SOG fell to 3.5 (with the help of a WNW current of 1.2). Besides dropping to single digits the wind has veered to 65, putting the boat into a slower broad reach. Sunset was at 17:38 (38 23’e). I am 127 nm from 27s 36e. I am only expecting wind for the next 6h, then the forecast is for the wind to disappear. The running lights failed to come on when I turn in the breaker at dusk. In addition to the white light on the stern, I went to the foredeck and confirmed the red and green light are not on either. The panel light is on suggesting there is power at the breaker. Further, it seems the break must be close to the breaker because the lights must be wired in parallel, not series, otherwise one burned out bulb would eliminate all the lights. I turned on the steaming and anchor lights for tonight. Tomorrow, I will try to track down where the break if the sea is not too rough to work. On that note, the wind kicked up to 15 kt as expected about 19:00. Unfortunately, I will just have a few hours of this wind before the dead air arrives. By 22:30 the current had shifted to 260. It was necessary to shift the heading to 320 to get a COG close to the rhumb line for 27s 36e. At 1:30 I had 12 kt wind from 70 and was on a heading of 325 for a COG of 295 to the waypoint. I was making 4.5 kt, but that was about to change as I passed the current gyro S of me (current pulling against me) and the wind starts dying (as a consequence of the low passing). The 14h-old GRIB was updated at 2:00. There were no surprises. I was about to hit a brick wall with zero wind. My new way point was 27 nm E, 27s 37e, at which point I will change my course to RBay and rely primarily on the 1.7 kt current (and my engine) to get across the windless gulf. But, getting to 27s 37e was the first problem as wind was dwindling fast. I might have enough wind to keep me going in the right direction for another 2h. At that point I will start drifting S unless I run the engine. It is 4:30 and I have made 19 nm to 37e in the last 2.5h. The 4 kt average was better than I expected. The wind had dropped to 7-9 from 80 and the current is still perpendicular at 1.8. I am making about 3-3.5 kt. The wind is supposed to veer to 120-140 between 10:00-noon today (5-7h). There is no use tacking to port and RBay until the wind veers. So, I only need to average 3 kt until the wind veers. I am not going to run the engine to do that but instead will make best speed under sail until the wind veers. The break even point is probably 100 degrees. At that point I will motorsail to try to cross the doldrums (or at least minimize the time I am becalmed). I will use this quiet time to try to find the problem with the running lights. I figure there must be two wires, one running forward and the other aft and the junction is probably near the circuit breaker, perhaps at the breaker itself. The problem is presumably between the breaker and that junction. It is extremely tight in that part of the engine room, so I appreciate the relatively calm seas to figure it out. Sunrise was at 4:57 (37 18’e). I made 404-295=109 nm on to RBay in the last 24h.
Comments: It is an hour after dawn and I am struck by how calm the water is. There is virtually no swell and just the slightest hint of wind-driven waves. It has been months since I have seen conditions like this … probably the Arafura Sea or maybe the Torres Strait. I’d like to be making 2 kt more, but the truth is I feel very relaxed after being battered for several months. It is 6:30 and I just downloaded a new GRIB that suggest I should continue to 27s 36e and then make a beeline for RBay. I hit dead air in the morning and if I motor through it I would likely arrive at RBay well before dark on Wednesday. By 7:30 the boat was doing a surprising 5 kt. I took advantage of the stable boat to prepare a proper meal of breakfast burritos. I used some pasteurized pepper jack cheese that I have had in stores for eight months and it was surprisingly good. At 10:00 the wind speed had fallen to 5 and the current was 0.5 and perpendicular to. The conditions seemed ideal for motorsailing. At 1,800 rpm, I had an AWS of over 11 kt and was making 6.3 kt SOG. A fruit vender in Rodrigues gifted me a bunch of green bananas after I explained it would be the last time ai would be visiting his stand because I was leaving in the morning to sail my boat to South Africa. Now, two weeks later, the first banana just became ripe. I have brought many green bananas onboard for passages, but none have lasted so long. The guy must really know what he was going. The bananas were in the back, not for sale yet, because he knew it would take two weeks for them to ripen. What a treat. I am now about 200 nm off the coast of South Africa and seabirds have appeared again. Because the waters are so calm, I am not in survival mode, hanging on for dear life, so I have been able to do chores more easily … cleaning, repairing, cooking, etc. i have been making a lot of fresh water that I have been using to clean the boat. I even had a spa day … got a hot shower in the cockpit, treated my brined skin, etc.. I figure I have another 36h of this and I will start seeing the aftermath of the low that has been working its way up the coast … then the party will be over. Fortunately by that point I should be less than 2d from RBay. I have been motorsailing since 10:00, 4.5h, and as expected, I am beginning to reach a zone with double-digit winds, the point at which I felt comfortable returning to sailing. I turned the engine off at 2:00. I am 145 nm from 27s 36e and 365 nm from RBay. The wind is blowing 10-13 from 50 and a 1.4 kt current is now WNW, contributing more to the 5 kt SOG. As it usually does, the wind dropped near sunset and the SOG fell to 3.5 (with the help of a WNW current of 1.2). Besides dropping to single digits the wind has veered to 65, putting the boat into a slower broad reach. Sunset was at 17:38 (38 23’e). I am 127 nm from 27s 36e. I am only expecting wind for the next 6h, then the forecast is for the wind to disappear. The running lights failed to come on when I turn in the breaker at dusk. In addition to the white light on the stern, I went to the foredeck and confirmed the red and green light are not on either. The panel light is on suggesting there is power at the breaker. Further, it seems the break must be close to the breaker because the lights must be wired in parallel, not series, otherwise one burned out bulb would eliminate all the lights. I turned on the steaming and anchor lights for tonight. Tomorrow, I will try to track down where the break if the sea is not too rough to work. On that note, the wind kicked up to 15 kt as expected about 19:00. Unfortunately, I will just have a few hours of this wind before the dead air arrives. By 22:30 the current had shifted to 260. It was necessary to shift the heading to 320 to get a COG close to the rhumb line for 27s 36e. At 1:30 I had 12 kt wind from 70 and was on a heading of 325 for a COG of 295 to the waypoint. I was making 4.5 kt, but that was about to change as I passed the current gyro S of me (current pulling against me) and the wind starts dying (as a consequence of the low passing). The 14h-old GRIB was updated at 2:00. There were no surprises. I was about to hit a brick wall with zero wind. My new way point was 27 nm E, 27s 37e, at which point I will change my course to RBay and rely primarily on the 1.7 kt current (and my engine) to get across the windless gulf. But, getting to 27s 37e was the first problem as wind was dwindling fast. I might have enough wind to keep me going in the right direction for another 2h. At that point I will start drifting S unless I run the engine. It is 4:30 and I have made 19 nm to 37e in the last 2.5h. The 4 kt average was better than I expected. The wind had dropped to 7-9 from 80 and the current is still perpendicular at 1.8. I am making about 3-3.5 kt. The wind is supposed to veer to 120-140 between 10:00-noon today (5-7h). There is no use tacking to port and RBay until the wind veers. So, I only need to average 3 kt until the wind veers. I am not going to run the engine to do that but instead will make best speed under sail until the wind veers. The break even point is probably 100 degrees. At that point I will motorsail to try to cross the doldrums (or at least minimize the time I am becalmed). I will use this quiet time to try to find the problem with the running lights. I figure there must be two wires, one running forward and the other aft and the junction is probably near the circuit breaker, perhaps at the breaker itself. The problem is presumably between the breaker and that junction. It is extremely tight in that part of the engine room, so I appreciate the relatively calm seas to figure it out. Sunrise was at 4:57 (37 18’e). I made 404-295=109 nm on to RBay in the last 24h.