Current Position: 30 45.903’S 15 49.287’E; Timezone: UTC+2; SOG: 6.1 kt; COG: 346; TWS: 22; TWD: 226; Current Speed: 1.2 kt; Current Direction: 320; Distance to Waypoint (BAR1, 344): 575 nm; Distance to Endpoint (Bridgetown): 5106 nm; Total Miles Sailed: 16810 nm; Engine Hours: 409; Estimate Fuel: 60+12+50;
Comments: I found the problem with the Iridium system. I was running a VPN on my iPhone and the app didn’t like it. It is 20:30 and all the comes are working again (email, iMessaging, PredictWind, etc.). The marine traffic is generally heavy, but after the next freighter passes in 30m, I should have a couple of hours. I will set an alarm interval of 30m. The wind is supposed to lighten up by dawn, but it will pick up again late tomorrow afternoon. I expect to have 160 nm days for the next 3-4 days, which should put me close to the waypoint. At that point I will need to decide if I am headed further N along the coast, or if I change course NW to St. Helena. It is 5:00. Sunrise should be about 5:50. It was a long night of 30m intervals. Perhaps 10-15 ships passed within 1-2 nm. The boat has averaged 6.8 kt over the past 10h, slowing down a bit in the early morning hours as expected. The wind vane has done a very good job. I am exactly on the PW course and 3h ahead of schedule for the course that plotted 10h ago. I will have made 165 nm in the 24h since leaving the bay and turning N around 13:00 yesterday (since I started chipping away at the 750 nm to BAR1). The wind between now and then will fluctuate 15/20 and 25/30. In general the higher winds will be during the day and lower at night, but there are exceptions. I believe PW will continue to underestimate how well the boat is performing under these conditions … she loves big wind and seas. PW suggests I will only average 4.6 kt and will take 6d to sail the 630 nm (arriving the morning of the 27. I believe I will average at least 6, taking (630/6)/24=4.4 days, arriving Christmas. I believe I will let the current and compression zone play out and when I start seeing the single digits of the trade winds and no chance of winds over 15, launch the asym for a the ride over to the Brazilian coast. That should be very comfortable. I am also not going to sweat making BAR1, but rather go with the flow of wind and current. Right now the current seems to be turning out to sea. My average speed over the past 30m has been 6.3 kt. The bilge pump has been going off in the shower sump for 20s every hour or so because the big seas are putting some water in the chain locker, but everything is operating as it should. It is 19:00 and the wind has decreased, but I expect it to build this afternoon and I will see gusts in the low 30s, so I am not going to unfurl any more of the jib right now. I will go through six time zones on my way to Barbados. The first will be about BAR1 (UTC+1), the second halfway to St. Helena (UTC+0), and the third just past St. Helena (UTC-1). I will cross one more on the way to the Brazilian coast. Brazil is in the same time zone as Barbados (UTC-3), which is 1h ahead of EST. As predicted, the wind was light all morning (12-15 kt) and the boat only averaged 4.8. But by noon it was blowing 15/20 and the boat was averaging 5.6. Since the boat was rolling and I expected 25/30 by midafternoon, I decided not to raise the main. I will raise it sometime around dawn (or whenever the seas calm down a bit) when the winds are supposed to 13/17. It is 14:30 and as predicted the wind is picking up.
Comments: I found the problem with the Iridium system. I was running a VPN on my iPhone and the app didn’t like it. It is 20:30 and all the comes are working again (email, iMessaging, PredictWind, etc.). The marine traffic is generally heavy, but after the next freighter passes in 30m, I should have a couple of hours. I will set an alarm interval of 30m. The wind is supposed to lighten up by dawn, but it will pick up again late tomorrow afternoon. I expect to have 160 nm days for the next 3-4 days, which should put me close to the waypoint. At that point I will need to decide if I am headed further N along the coast, or if I change course NW to St. Helena. It is 5:00. Sunrise should be about 5:50. It was a long night of 30m intervals. Perhaps 10-15 ships passed within 1-2 nm. The boat has averaged 6.8 kt over the past 10h, slowing down a bit in the early morning hours as expected. The wind vane has done a very good job. I am exactly on the PW course and 3h ahead of schedule for the course that plotted 10h ago. I will have made 165 nm in the 24h since leaving the bay and turning N around 13:00 yesterday (since I started chipping away at the 750 nm to BAR1). The wind between now and then will fluctuate 15/20 and 25/30. In general the higher winds will be during the day and lower at night, but there are exceptions. I believe PW will continue to underestimate how well the boat is performing under these conditions … she loves big wind and seas. PW suggests I will only average 4.6 kt and will take 6d to sail the 630 nm (arriving the morning of the 27. I believe I will average at least 6, taking (630/6)/24=4.4 days, arriving Christmas. I believe I will let the current and compression zone play out and when I start seeing the single digits of the trade winds and no chance of winds over 15, launch the asym for a the ride over to the Brazilian coast. That should be very comfortable. I am also not going to sweat making BAR1, but rather go with the flow of wind and current. Right now the current seems to be turning out to sea. My average speed over the past 30m has been 6.3 kt. The bilge pump has been going off in the shower sump for 20s every hour or so because the big seas are putting some water in the chain locker, but everything is operating as it should. It is 19:00 and the wind has decreased, but I expect it to build this afternoon and I will see gusts in the low 30s, so I am not going to unfurl any more of the jib right now. I will go through six time zones on my way to Barbados. The first will be about BAR1 (UTC+1), the second halfway to St. Helena (UTC+0), and the third just past St. Helena (UTC-1). I will cross one more on the way to the Brazilian coast. Brazil is in the same time zone as Barbados (UTC-3), which is 1h ahead of EST. As predicted, the wind was light all morning (12-15 kt) and the boat only averaged 4.8. But by noon it was blowing 15/20 and the boat was averaging 5.6. Since the boat was rolling and I expected 25/30 by midafternoon, I decided not to raise the main. I will raise it sometime around dawn (or whenever the seas calm down a bit) when the winds are supposed to 13/17. It is 14:30 and as predicted the wind is picking up.