Big Sky

Title: Big Sky

January 20, 2019

Day 108

Noon Position: 45 44S  101 12E

Course(t)/Speed(kts): ENE 7

Wind(t/tws): WxS 20 (also SWxW when squalls come through)

Sea(t/ft): W 10

Sky: Open, then squally; lots of sun and cumulonimbus

10ths Cloud Cover: 8

Bar(mb): 1012+, steady

Cabin Temp(f): 57

Water Temp(f): 48

Relative Humidity(%): 61

Sail: Twins poled out full

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 161

Miles since departure: 15,077

Avg. Miles/Day: 140 (!)

Days since Cape Horn: 51

Miles since Cape Horn: 7,443

Avg. Miles/Day: 146

Longitude Degrees Made Good (degrees minutes): 3 48

Total Longitude Made Good Since Cape Horn (degrees minutes): 168 29

Avg. Long./Day: 3.30

It’s been a big sky day here on the ranch. Expanses of powder blue above and all the way to the cobalt blue water top we had, but rarely. More usual was a profusion of light, white cloud; leaning towers like one sees in the tropics but never down here, and squalls.

The squalls defined the day for Mo. When they moved through, they bent the wind and sped it up, and Mo would take off like she’d been stung by a bee. I’d rein her in only to find that five minutes later we were wallowing; then I’d have to kick some giddy-up into her pace.

We’ve seen so many changes to wind direction and speed that I’ve come to the end of the day with a strange set of sail flying. In a word, all of it. Both genoas (one poled to starboard, the other free to port) and the main–and it’s all double reefed. I’m not recommending this, by the way; it’s just how things have turned out.

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Recently, a friend noted my coffee video and asked how I clean the It’sAmercianPress. My standard maneuver is to take the small canister of grounds to the companionway hatch, stick my arm out, just my arm, and give the canister a brisk flick to leeward. Sometimes this works as intended, the intention being that a neat hockey puck of grounds will fly over the side. More often it’s a bit like tossing a mud pie, with results as pictured.

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Electrical projects today for the skipper. One being to replace the switch for the tracker device, which stopped working this morning (the switch, not the tracker). Wouldn’t want you to get lost, now would we.