Current Position: 10 56.741’S 116 27.302’E; Local Timezone: UTC+8 SOG: 5.2 kt; COG: 283; TWS: 14 kt; TWD: 145; Distance to Waypoint (Christmas Island, 271): 634 nm; Total Miles Sailed: 10405 nm; Engine Hours: 242; Estimate Fuel: 51+11+50;
Comments: Note: PredictMail is no longer working correctly. Outgoing emails are apparently being received, but I have not received any PredictMail since Sunday. If you are trying to reach me, do not reply to PredictMail until the problem is resolved. Use one of my Gmail accounts. If you have sent an important message to the PredictMail account in the past four days, you might want to resend it to one of my Gmail accounts. Rain clouds arrived about 16:00. There appeared to be precipitation ahead, but nothing threatening. Sunset was at 18:00. Right at dusk I discovered I had passed a trawler, probably within one-quarter mile. I didn’t know it was there until it turned in its AIS after I had passed. It is going to be another night of watching for lights on the horizon. As predicted, the wind started decreasing shortly after dusk. By 23:00, 10 kt is expected. The wind will pick up again by dawn, but it will back overnight from 180 to 140. I am setting my alarm for 1h intervals to look for trawlers and periodically adjust the windvane. At 20:30 I saw faint lights on the horizon, but none in my path. At 22:30 I saw some light off my starboard bow that I might have to avoid. At 23:30 there were a dozen or more trawlers to the starboard and only one to the port. It did not appear that any were in my way. The ride has smoothed out quite a bit, perhaps because the wind had not exceeded 14 kt for 4h or so. At 1:00 I no longer saw distinctive lights ahead. The wind had backed to 150, so I adjusted the windvane. At 3:00 the trawlers seemed to be N of me. It is 5:30, about an hour before sunrise, but it is getting light, so I can no longer spot the trawlers using their lights. However, I will soon be in the shipping lane, and I suspect they do not fish there. I should start seeing the first of the commercial traffic in 3-4h, but most of it is about 50 nm away. The traffic is about 150 nm away (with most of it in the middle 50). This means ai will be avoiding it for the next 36h, but most of it during the night. There are not as many clouds this morning and they aren’t as dark. The seas are now like bluewater with big swells. As predicted, the first of the cargo ships (Shandong Ren He) showed up at 7:00 and is 25 nm away. We should cross paths in about 2h. I spotted the vessel 10 nm off my starboard bow at 8:30. The vessel passed my bow at a distance of 0.5 nm about 9:15. That sounds like a long way, but for an 1,100’ vessel, that is less than three ship lengths. It is hard to say when I will encounter the next vessel, but I should reach the main channel late afternoon. By 10:00 it had become heavily overcast. At 13:30 the first of the cargo ships from the shipping lane showed up on the AIS, 30 nm away. Another one showed up at 15:00. The distance sailed towards Christmas Island in the last 24h was 758-634=124 nm. The total distance sailed was 10405-10273=132 nm (134/24=5.58 kt avg.), even better than the previous two days.
Comments: Note: PredictMail is no longer working correctly. Outgoing emails are apparently being received, but I have not received any PredictMail since Sunday. If you are trying to reach me, do not reply to PredictMail until the problem is resolved. Use one of my Gmail accounts. If you have sent an important message to the PredictMail account in the past four days, you might want to resend it to one of my Gmail accounts. Rain clouds arrived about 16:00. There appeared to be precipitation ahead, but nothing threatening. Sunset was at 18:00. Right at dusk I discovered I had passed a trawler, probably within one-quarter mile. I didn’t know it was there until it turned in its AIS after I had passed. It is going to be another night of watching for lights on the horizon. As predicted, the wind started decreasing shortly after dusk. By 23:00, 10 kt is expected. The wind will pick up again by dawn, but it will back overnight from 180 to 140. I am setting my alarm for 1h intervals to look for trawlers and periodically adjust the windvane. At 20:30 I saw faint lights on the horizon, but none in my path. At 22:30 I saw some light off my starboard bow that I might have to avoid. At 23:30 there were a dozen or more trawlers to the starboard and only one to the port. It did not appear that any were in my way. The ride has smoothed out quite a bit, perhaps because the wind had not exceeded 14 kt for 4h or so. At 1:00 I no longer saw distinctive lights ahead. The wind had backed to 150, so I adjusted the windvane. At 3:00 the trawlers seemed to be N of me. It is 5:30, about an hour before sunrise, but it is getting light, so I can no longer spot the trawlers using their lights. However, I will soon be in the shipping lane, and I suspect they do not fish there. I should start seeing the first of the commercial traffic in 3-4h, but most of it is about 50 nm away. The traffic is about 150 nm away (with most of it in the middle 50). This means ai will be avoiding it for the next 36h, but most of it during the night. There are not as many clouds this morning and they aren’t as dark. The seas are now like bluewater with big swells. As predicted, the first of the cargo ships (Shandong Ren He) showed up at 7:00 and is 25 nm away. We should cross paths in about 2h. I spotted the vessel 10 nm off my starboard bow at 8:30. The vessel passed my bow at a distance of 0.5 nm about 9:15. That sounds like a long way, but for an 1,100’ vessel, that is less than three ship lengths. It is hard to say when I will encounter the next vessel, but I should reach the main channel late afternoon. By 10:00 it had become heavily overcast. At 13:30 the first of the cargo ships from the shipping lane showed up on the AIS, 30 nm away. Another one showed up at 15:00. The distance sailed towards Christmas Island in the last 24h was 758-634=124 nm. The total distance sailed was 10405-10273=132 nm (134/24=5.58 kt avg.), even better than the previous two days.