Current Position: 32 17.489’S 29 04.142’E; Timezone: UTC+2; SOG: 6.0; COG: 261; TWS: 9; TWD: 55; Current Speed, 3.6 kt; Current Direction, 260 Distance to Waypoint (East London, 262): 72; Total Miles Sailed: 15839 nm; Engine Hours: 318; Estimate Fuel: 58+13+50;
Comments: it is 5:25, half a hour after sunrise. The seas are still complex as the wind shifted only 12h ago, and the boat is rolling and fishtailing in the confusion. Nonetheless, I am enjoying my tea in the cockpit. It feels cold for the first time in eight months. I am still barefoot, but gave a jacket on. I’m doing 7.5 kt in 16 kt wind and 2.7 kt current in a deep broad reach, almost a run, with 80% of the Yankee, the storm staysail, and a double-reefed main. The obtuse AWA is causing the foresails to slat. Since tge wind is supposed to continue to build and back from 90 to 50, after my tea, I am going to drop and Kash the mainsail and try to run with the foresails. I dropped the main at 6:00. The topmost baton pocket is badly torn. If I raise the main again I will remove the baton. As I suspected, the boat is running much more smoothly without the main up. The speed was 7.3 with the main and 7.0 without it. However, when the wind shifts later I will be able to run with the foresails only. Furthermore, since the sails are no longer slatting, I can ease the sheets and get a better sail shape. In doing that I was able to achieve 7.6 kt speed. I am in a pack of cargo ships … almost too many to keep track of, but like a rock in the middle of a stream, they change course and go around me. Everyone is going the same direction … S, because it would be insane to fight the current. At 6:30, I have one ship off my port and another off my starboard. I took an hour nap … still catching up on sleep. At 7:30 my average speed since 6:00 has improved to 7.7. Based on the forecasts, my average speed should increase. Sunset will be about 18:40 tomorrow. Given there is usable light for an hour after that, I have 36 h to cover the 250 nm, so I need to average 250/36=6.9 kt. This seems very likely. Given East London is supposed to be easy to enter in all weather conditions and at night, it seems likely I will arrive tomorrow evening. I have already planned to anchor rather than try to negotiate the fore and aft moorings. Since the anchor chain has not been sorted out since Rodrigues, I imagine it will be quite an effort to untangle it. It is 8:00, the sky is clearing up, and I am averaging 8.1 kt. It is 11:00, I am averaging 8.2, and the sky is almost cloudless and bright. The seas have cleaned up a bit and I am in a bear run with following seas. Does not get better than this. The boat speed has fallen to 7.9 by 15:00, primarily due to lesser current. I believe I am too far offshore 23 nm). I adjusted my course to bring the boat to shallower waters, but there is a sea wall along this stretch of coastline with a steep drop off close to shore. It is 16:30 … the wind is blowing 25-30 and the current is 2.5. The boat speed is 5.5-6 and the SOG 8-8.5. I am 180 nm from East London and 20 nm from the coastline, which I can just make out. At 17:30 I tacked to the starboard. I believe if I get 5 nm closer to shore I will pick up another kn current. There are costal storms to the W and a squall to the S. Everything upwind looks okay. I am going to stay on the starboard tack for about 20 nm (2.5h, 20:30), then tack back to the port for the rest of the night. It is sunset (18:40) and I am 162 nm from the entrance of the harbor. I will need to sail 162/24=6.75 kt avg. to make it there by dusk tomorrow. If I maintain the average I have the past 24h, I will be there in 162/8=21h, about 15:30. At 19:00 I changed course to go around a cargo ship that was clearly adrift, not under propulsion, but drifting with the current. It was perpendicular to the current, so the AIS was confusing as it was pointed 90 degrees from the direction it was traveling. As I head towards shore I picked up speed due to increased current. At 20:00 I was clear of the drifting freighter, 12 nm from shore, and in a 4.4 kt current. The SOG was nearly 10 kt. I had gained 2 kt by moving closer to shore. I didn’t actually tack back to port. The wind direction had backed enough that I can probably stay on the starboard tack overnight. I believe the changing current direction will address changed in the coastline. It looks like I have about 75 nm before I may need to change course away from the coast. Just 10 nm off a rugged coast and traveling 9.8 kt, I cannot afford to sleep very long. It is 1:30 and the wind speed has fallen to 20, the current fallen to 3.9, and the SOG fallen to 8.5. I am in a dead run and the ride is the most comfortable it has been so far with 98 nm to go. I need to average 98/16=6.1 kt to arrive in time to anchor before dark. I am still 11 nm from the coast, but it has begun to bulge out and without some help from the current wrapping around I will need to tack. At 3:30 the wind was down to 12 from 40 and the current 3.7, reducing the SOG to 7.1 kt with 80 nm to go. It looks like it will be unnecessary to tack. By 4:00 the wind was 8 and the current 3.6 giving a SOG of 5.9. PW predicted the decreased wind. After sunrise it should pick up again building to over 20 by noon. The current should increase to 4.5 as well. It is a pretty pink sunrise, but behind some rain showers to the S.
Comments: it is 5:25, half a hour after sunrise. The seas are still complex as the wind shifted only 12h ago, and the boat is rolling and fishtailing in the confusion. Nonetheless, I am enjoying my tea in the cockpit. It feels cold for the first time in eight months. I am still barefoot, but gave a jacket on. I’m doing 7.5 kt in 16 kt wind and 2.7 kt current in a deep broad reach, almost a run, with 80% of the Yankee, the storm staysail, and a double-reefed main. The obtuse AWA is causing the foresails to slat. Since tge wind is supposed to continue to build and back from 90 to 50, after my tea, I am going to drop and Kash the mainsail and try to run with the foresails. I dropped the main at 6:00. The topmost baton pocket is badly torn. If I raise the main again I will remove the baton. As I suspected, the boat is running much more smoothly without the main up. The speed was 7.3 with the main and 7.0 without it. However, when the wind shifts later I will be able to run with the foresails only. Furthermore, since the sails are no longer slatting, I can ease the sheets and get a better sail shape. In doing that I was able to achieve 7.6 kt speed. I am in a pack of cargo ships … almost too many to keep track of, but like a rock in the middle of a stream, they change course and go around me. Everyone is going the same direction … S, because it would be insane to fight the current. At 6:30, I have one ship off my port and another off my starboard. I took an hour nap … still catching up on sleep. At 7:30 my average speed since 6:00 has improved to 7.7. Based on the forecasts, my average speed should increase. Sunset will be about 18:40 tomorrow. Given there is usable light for an hour after that, I have 36 h to cover the 250 nm, so I need to average 250/36=6.9 kt. This seems very likely. Given East London is supposed to be easy to enter in all weather conditions and at night, it seems likely I will arrive tomorrow evening. I have already planned to anchor rather than try to negotiate the fore and aft moorings. Since the anchor chain has not been sorted out since Rodrigues, I imagine it will be quite an effort to untangle it. It is 8:00, the sky is clearing up, and I am averaging 8.1 kt. It is 11:00, I am averaging 8.2, and the sky is almost cloudless and bright. The seas have cleaned up a bit and I am in a bear run with following seas. Does not get better than this. The boat speed has fallen to 7.9 by 15:00, primarily due to lesser current. I believe I am too far offshore 23 nm). I adjusted my course to bring the boat to shallower waters, but there is a sea wall along this stretch of coastline with a steep drop off close to shore. It is 16:30 … the wind is blowing 25-30 and the current is 2.5. The boat speed is 5.5-6 and the SOG 8-8.5. I am 180 nm from East London and 20 nm from the coastline, which I can just make out. At 17:30 I tacked to the starboard. I believe if I get 5 nm closer to shore I will pick up another kn current. There are costal storms to the W and a squall to the S. Everything upwind looks okay. I am going to stay on the starboard tack for about 20 nm (2.5h, 20:30), then tack back to the port for the rest of the night. It is sunset (18:40) and I am 162 nm from the entrance of the harbor. I will need to sail 162/24=6.75 kt avg. to make it there by dusk tomorrow. If I maintain the average I have the past 24h, I will be there in 162/8=21h, about 15:30. At 19:00 I changed course to go around a cargo ship that was clearly adrift, not under propulsion, but drifting with the current. It was perpendicular to the current, so the AIS was confusing as it was pointed 90 degrees from the direction it was traveling. As I head towards shore I picked up speed due to increased current. At 20:00 I was clear of the drifting freighter, 12 nm from shore, and in a 4.4 kt current. The SOG was nearly 10 kt. I had gained 2 kt by moving closer to shore. I didn’t actually tack back to port. The wind direction had backed enough that I can probably stay on the starboard tack overnight. I believe the changing current direction will address changed in the coastline. It looks like I have about 75 nm before I may need to change course away from the coast. Just 10 nm off a rugged coast and traveling 9.8 kt, I cannot afford to sleep very long. It is 1:30 and the wind speed has fallen to 20, the current fallen to 3.9, and the SOG fallen to 8.5. I am in a dead run and the ride is the most comfortable it has been so far with 98 nm to go. I need to average 98/16=6.1 kt to arrive in time to anchor before dark. I am still 11 nm from the coast, but it has begun to bulge out and without some help from the current wrapping around I will need to tack. At 3:30 the wind was down to 12 from 40 and the current 3.7, reducing the SOG to 7.1 kt with 80 nm to go. It looks like it will be unnecessary to tack. By 4:00 the wind was 8 and the current 3.6 giving a SOG of 5.9. PW predicted the decreased wind. After sunrise it should pick up again building to over 20 by noon. The current should increase to 4.5 as well. It is a pretty pink sunrise, but behind some rain showers to the S.