Front Coming

Front Coming

December 27, 2018

Day 84

Noon Position: 44 32S  13 19E

Course(t)/Speed(kts): SExS 6

Wind(t/tws): WxS 15

Sea(t/ft): Mixed to 3 feet

Sky: Puffy cumulus and moderate squalls

10ths Cloud Cover: 5

Bar(mb): 1014, rising

Cabin Temp(f): 57

Water Temp(f): 59

Relative Humidity(%): 60 (dry)

Sail: Working jib poled to windward, main; full. Broad reach.

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 129

Miles since departure: 11,385

Avg. Miles/Day: 136

Light winds and slow going these last two days, but that should change tonight. As I type, there’s a large front approaching from the W. Right now we’re racing under poled out twins; winds are W in the teens. Tonight they’ll shift to the N and bump up to thirty. I intend to ride these winds at an angle and slowly drop down a couple degrees of latitude so as to avoid more calms up here later in the week.

Today’s drama was that the Watt and Sea hydrogenerator down haul parted in the night. I came on deck to find the unit bobbing astern. The line had been fraying for some time, and I should have changed it out earlier, but the job is un-fun, and so I pushed for a few more miles. As it turns out, the parting occurred during fine weather, and thus my sojourn over the transom to rerun it avoided a dunking. For which I am grateful.

Finally got a decent shot of a favorite bird and frequent visitor in twos and threes: the white chinned petrel. The identification of this lovely took forever due to the name referring to a postage stamp sized patch of white under the beak, a diagnostic mark, that is only visible close up. These are the chocolate brown birds I’ve referenced before.

Speaking of brown, the brownies are gone. Just gone. Either the batch was smaller than the contents on the bag indicated or Monte has been nibbling when I’m not looking.