SailBlog

Last night, the winds did back to NW enough that we were under a blissful sway, still able to be on a port tack and have the bed opened up with out the Lee board. I was tired after a long day and nights up with the radio and the time zone type 'jet lag' I am feeling I think. My body doesn't seem to be as responsive to the night and daylight rhythm. It seems on EST to some extent as I interact with you all home. I don't want to go to sleep until Bob and I have had our evening text, but that is now past midnight for me. So last night, I decided to get an early sleep, right after dinner, 9pm ish my time, noon EST. I had all my alarms set to do radio at 2130 UTC and all. I got myself all tucked in and I was warm even to my feet.

I awoke on my own feeling as if I had really slept for some time and sure enough, despite the alarms being on, I didn't hear them. I had my phone too far on the shelf I guess. it was 1200 UTC by that time and sure enough, the wind had backed and we were on a course ENE...I got out of bed and adjusted the steering vane. It was a quick in and out.

The temperature had dropped into the 40s and it was amazing how quickly it permeated my clothes and all... still drizzly, the flashlight even picking up the fog like denseness of the water in the air. I quickly put the pot on to boil and made some cocoa with ginger, then grabbed the pot and we all settled back into my bunk, Tigger and Black Dog, I have come to call Pearl...the resemblance too uncanny to ignor, though I have to check my emotional memories.

Though I was off course a while, the longer stretch of sleep felt great. I didn't set any alarm further for the night. I was ready to accept the consequences of our being any farther off course for the night. The winds were to back to the west, and the dawn was coming in just an hour or two....then I would deal with it. With the backing, I will have to set the pole. The forecast is for light west winds for most of a day, so it is worth it to get the pole up and to sail most efficiently to maximize our speed.

I was off to sleep as soon as I got my hands tucked in with me and woke well into the dawn. The winds had backed around, so I did the duty of getting dressed and forging the cold and still foggy drizzle to do the pole dance and set as much sail as I could in the light winds. We are averaging just over 4 kts...not speedy but over the course of 24 hours, we make our average speed of 100nm or so. I use the old 'pythagorean theorem'... A squared + B squaredC squared to get the hypotenuse of the triangle made up of the progress I make in nautical miles South and East...it still works...lol.

Once back below, I was feeling quite refreshed. Some real sleep had done me well... I felt my mind was actually encouraged as well as my being. I was thinking of writing and getting my self back on task with my books and all that needs to be done before I return home. I can't afford to let time go by out here and not accomplish my goals...on days like yesterday, the goals are more esoteric and comfort measures. But today, the motion is minimal, life is much more conducive though still, a challenge to have my hands uncovered and feet dismally numb.

I set about to do my charting, getting a morning position from the Delorme tracker. I am promising my self a good stint of my return after rounding the Horn dedicated to Celestial navigation, but, as I suspected could happen, the ease of using the tracker has won my practical lazy tendency for now.

As I was settling into my blankets sitting up, the portholes lit up and it seems we are going to have some sunshine today, at least hazy, through the fog moments. I am on the south edge of a high north of me at this point, a low approaching from the south with this high above creating a building of SW winds tomorrow. So the temps will stay cold but I may have some sunshine and this fog from the warm spring sun.

I had made average speeds during all the headwinds and a night of lighter winds from the stern quarter. I wrote my position in my book, showing I had made 113nm in the past 22 hours actually a 5kt average. I am at 46* 35' E so well beyond the +4 time zone, but not nearly as far from Africa as I would like to think I am...it has only been 2 weeks since I crossed Cape Hope which is on the west side of the tip of Africa...but we are making headway steadily.

We are still not really out from the currents of Africa as Madagascar is at nearly 60E..we still have a ways to go to clear it all and then have any sense that we are on our way to Aussi...but we will be at 60*E in a weeks time... I will pass the point where the magnetic variation for my compass is it's greatest on this trip, maxing out at 49*of error to the west. but it means we are making way. The west coast of Aussi is at 110*E . So again, we are hoping to pick up the pace and be there in a five weeks or so. The south east coast of Aussi is around 150*E so it is a big country, 2400 nm wide....nearly as wide as the USA once you change nautical mile to statute miles...

I downloaded a new weather Grib file forecast and decided to record the forecast in my log book so I don't have to have be looking back at the Grib all the time. I do it all in pencil so i can update it with later forecasts. Once I had written down the changes over the next week, it occured to me to try to diagram the weather changes moving from lows south, highs north, and now there are the lows that are coming from the NW off of Africa and the Indian Ocean that move NW to SE across my path. I have a whole series of shifts over the week as the chart is busy. I photoed the diagram...

The lows spin clockwise in the south Hemisphere, and the highs counterclockwise. Right now I am at the bottom of a high with a low approaching from the southwest...so I have westerlies today, but tomorrow, the winds will shift to the SW...then the high system fills in behind it with W. A frontal boundary from another low south of me brings a squash zone of NW winds that shift to SW and are really going to blow around the 12Th with another, or the same High system above me and a fast moving front below, strengthening a squash zone of very strong SW winds to 30kts. A larger frontal boundary comes through behind that with strong NW winds...this time giving way to a high above and WSW the W light winds like I am having today.

After that, there is another front a bit stronger but like I just had, one that starts off in the INdian Ocean off Africa and moves SE across my path...the position of that front as compared to where I am will be based on how far I get between now and then and determine exactly how it presents itself to me. That front could bring a very strong East wind component that I will have to managed for the first 24 hours. This low may be of the strength of the front I missed last week so will take some fancy footwork to manage, but we will figure it out as it comes.

phew... Chris Parker had the same emotion of Phew...when he looked at the continual changing winds that were ahead of me this week. But we are through the first front and on to the next series of days. There are a couple of breaks like today, where the winds settle down to a comfortable pace off the stern...reprieves. The total consolation is that the winds this week are all sailable and I will make headway, nearing 60*E by the end of the week....Yahoo.

The sun is breaking through a bit....AAAHHHHH!! So...It is going to be an interesting week. As they all seem to be. Lots of knitting, warm drinks as much as I dare, and whatever I can do to stay warm...With the SW winds, I have no where to really sit comfortably so I end up in my bunk with the lee board. ...

I am getting tired...tired of the same circling winds and cold. I am still hoping that the temps lift some with the arrival of summer down here. but even Dec 21 seems like far far away right now. A long time to be cooped up cold. The winds are also increasing at this latitude...I am going to work my way up to 42* again...that may help a little. At this point, 30t winds are all reaching well above 40S with fronts that go by...but so far, the seas have been totally manageable...so all is safe...All safe and sound.

Acceptance...yes...I am willing to accept and enjoy the benefits of presence that makes it all bearable in the moment as it passes by. Even the biting cold on my hands when I am managing sails on deck...It is just for this moment that my hands hurt so...then the moment comes when they are warm again, tucked into layers of fleece.

I may start to just heat up my pots on the stove in between, just so I can tuck them into bed with me...My mom was raised as a tobacco farmer's daughter and when it used to get cold there, when we would visit, she would tell us how they all had their big stones they would heat by the fire and take them to bed with them...I have been doing that when I make tea or my soup but I may just start warming the pot to save water...

The day is giving way to the dusk, just a different hue of gray again this evening as the foggy low ceiling of clouds persists into the evening. Time for soup soon and I will crawl into bed early. There is a wind shift coming so I will be up in the night with my alarms so I can make thesail changes necessary to stay on course and make as much headway as possible in the conditions. Headway is Home....

Keepin On Sailin On a Dream... I am reaching farther and farther into meditation as I am sequestered to my bunk with the conditions...enforced discipline we call that. It is part of the reason why I decided to do this trip ... I am not nearly disciplined enough to have ventured as far as I have into developing my inner body communion with consciiousness without being sequestered away. The moment the lines let go of the mooring ball in Bristol...I was not going to return until the world had passed by my portholes, a world of oceans, space and time...interestingly, to learn how to live outside of space and time in the spiritual eternity that is ours when we remain in presence; a whole new existence; a new dimension of life. Even sequestered as I am, I am finding it hard to remain in communion... I am blessed. Thank you Rhema, for that lovely text this morning...I love you all so...Thank you.

Fairest of Winds and the Love of the Ocean Only Gratitude Donna

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