S/V Nereida sails around the world - Day 191: More sail repair; into W.Australia Time Zone

S/V Nereida sails around the world © Jeanne Socrates

Friday 9am - LT Skirting a High pressure cell (1018.5 hPa now) in light wind - expected to stay light for rest of the day - around 10-12kt.

Headed due E after having gybed onto port tack, with wind having veered to WNW. Speed 4-5kt - varying. Sky light grey with overcast layer. Seas down to 4m from yesterday's 6m.

Time for quick breakfast and then get on deck to see how much of the sail repair I can complete - should be able to get in several hours of work before wind strengthens to 15kt later today. Had a good chat with Carol Hasse, of Port Townsend Sails, earlier - came up with a couple of useful ideas that might help make repair/sewing easier to finish. As another friend said - I don't want to have to wrestle with this again, so need to make my repair as sturdy as possible so it lasts until my arrival back.

12:35pm - Back down to get another needle - two broken so far! A finer ordinary needle starts going through more easily - but it also breaks easily when any force is exerted to push it through the fabric. Will try on less thick area of repair - but back to sailmaker's needle for present three-layer work.

4:20pm - A good solid session on deck getting on with the mainsail repair (third needle broke - back to sailmaker's needle!). Sun is getting low so best to tie away the sail back onto the boom, check on our progress and download latest weather forecast.... and heat up my beef stew - I'm hungry!

Broken cloud, one or two Antarctic prions and a few white-chinned petrels not far off. Wind has been 12kt or more, increased a bit now, so we've been making 4-5 kt all afternoon, and swell is still about 4m - fortunately, I was sewing the sail using the boom for a 'work table' so the swell wasn't too much of a nuisance since the boom and sail made a secure handhold but definitely feeling it down below.

We just passed into W. Australian Time Zone - same time as Perth and Fremantle now - but I'll change the 'ship's clock' time on board, and here, later.

8:20pm - Of course, as soon as I furled in a bit more genoa, thinking the wind was getting up and we were heeling rather, as well as being on a beam reach in the NNW wind, the wind eased... so we're making just around 4kt... It's dark and I want to get some sleep, so it will have to stay - I'm sure the wind will come up again soon.

1:30am - Saturday LT (1730 Fri GMT) Wind from NNW, increased, as expected. Probably just over 15kt and expected to increase more overnight. Now making 4-5 kt on close reach - not a good point of sail for us without mains'l, and a bit bumpy and well-heeled. Banging a bit into the seas - not too comfortable!

1900GMT (= 3 a.m.true LT) - end of Day 191. We made 84 n.ml. DMG, over the 24 hr period, measured in a straight line between the two 1900 GMT positions. Light wind last night and today and close reach this afternoon/evening.

Total distance covered from Victoria, B.C., to end of Day 19 (by daily DMGs):16,855 n.ml.

Distances (at 1900GMT): Cape Leeuwin LH (SW Australia): 373 n.ml. to NNE (72 n.ml. to WP due S); Melbourne (VIC, AUS): 1439 n.ml. to ENE; SE Cape, Tasmania, LH: 1487 n.ml. to ESE; SW Cape, NZ: 2321 n.ml ESE; Cape Agulhas LH (S. Africa): 4236n.ml. to WNW.

Position & weather report for 1900 GMT posted to www.Winlink.org and www.Shiptrak.org (using my US callsign KC2IOV):

Time: 2019/04/12 19:00GMT
Latitude: 40-28.15S
Longitude: 113-32.46E
Course: 090T
Speed: 4.5kt
Wind Speed: 15kt
Wind Dir: NNW
Swell Dir: NW
Swell HT: 4.0m
Baro: 1012.9hP
Trend: -2
Air Temp: 15.0C
Sea Temp: 16C
Comment: Close reach, beating into seas. Slow point of sail for us. Wind building.

This article has been provided by the courtesy of the S/V Nereida.