As we head south in the southern hemisphere the water and air have been
getting cooler. The first impact was on the clothes of the sailors. I’ve
gone from standing night watches in a swimsuit and sandals to long
pants, t-shirt, over-shirt, windbreaker and wool socks under my sandals.
In Fiji we were sleeping in our boxers on top of the sheets and now it’s
pajamas, under the sheets and light blankets. I issued the sleeping bags
to each crewmember in anticipation of even cooler conditions.

We’ve been making pretty good progress on the trip so far. The wind was
out of the south, so we had to make some long tacks east and then west
but now it’s shifted to the south east and freshened so we can make good
progress more or less toward our destination. We’re using a program
called “Luck Grib” to download weather information. It also has an
excellent weather routing algorithm which incorporates the capabilities
of the boat on various points of sail (a polar diagram) as well as the
preferences of the captain (drive at 80% of the possible speed, slow
down overnight, motor if speed falls below 3 knots…). The program runs
simulations of the boat versus the expected weather at various times and
identifies the fastest route. Since the weather varies over time the
best path is not a straight line. In our case, there is expected to be
an area of low wind on the direct path to New Zealand, so the routing
program is suggesting we head west for a while, then bend back south and
motor for half a day through the low wind area before we sail directly
to Whangarei.

Current weather is 13 knots of breeze and the sail plan is 2 reefs in
the jib, one in the main and full stays’l. We’ve been making 6+ knots
close hauled despite 5’ seas on the nose. We’re heeled about 10-20
degrees, keeping the rail out of the water. The sky is clear, sun is
out, the seas is a dark blue and when we hit the big seas we make a big
splash with white foam. It’s a little rough when we slam into the waves
but the crew is glad to be making fast progress. The seasickness and
seasickness med side-effects that challenged some crew members appear to
be over. Morale remains high.

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