Day-37: 24hr Run=142 NM.
Position: Latitude- 48*38’S. Longitude- 98*17’W
Weather: Wind-W at 15-25 kts
Seas: 8-12ft.
Cabin Temp=53*-56*
Bar: 1016mb
Day 38: 24hr Run 158NM
Position: Latitude-51*26’S. Longitude- 95*28;W.
Weather: Wind W at 25-30kts.
Seas: 10-14 ft.
Cabin Temp=51*-55*
Bar=1016mb
Day 39: 24hr.Run=154 NM.
Position:Latitude 53*03’S Longitude- 92*19’W.
Weather: Wind SW at 20-25 kts.
Seas 8-12ft. SW
Cabin temp: 51-53*
Bar=1015mb
Total distance sailed so far=5271 NM.
Distance sailed lat 3-days=448 NM.
Distance left to go to Horn=891 NM.
Top speed so far=12.2 kts. New High
THE REST OF THE STORY:
Day-37
I took the mizzen down overnight and this morning just sailing with double reefed Main and 1/3rd. of Genoa. It’s gusting over 25 kts I’m cold and down here anything warm to eat or drink helps raise the core temperature.
You have to give me some slack on typos, as most the time it is like trying to type on a trampoline, with a couple of people jumping on it.
Getting rest and sleeping is very difficult down here, because as you lay in your bunk you here about 15 different noises, like the cans shifting in the bilge, the water rushing by the hull, the block that pops on deck if the Genoa gets a little slack, the fire extinguisher that lets you know it’s there by banging on the cabinet it is hanging in, and it goes on and on. Once you have decided there is no new noise that might mean springing into action, you now tune all the above out and concentrate on your equilibrium and pressure placed on different parts of your body.
Once you have this down you can fall asleep as if the pressure anywhere on your body changes or your equilibrium picks up on a different motion you will wake up.
I have come to realize the tequila bottle is also a good clock as when it gets lukewarm, it is time to get up. The safest and warmest and my favorite place on the boat is in “Bed”.
Day-38
That low pressure that is coming back to take another shot at us is staying to the south and moving through below us and, we will only see 25-30 kts, but there is a severe weather warning associated with it for 40 kts gusting 50-60 kts and severe seas, which I hope not to experience.
The Horn looks to be about 1-week out, and if we are lucky we will arrive right behind a big low. The problem is we must get so far south that we will have to weather the low if it comes, but better before the Horn than at the Horn.
The gap between the tip of South America and Antarctica is just over 300 miles wide, creating a narrow area where these lows tend to pass through , and there is a shelf that extends out sixty miles off of the tip of South America that might want to be avoided in Severe weather.
Today I did two small loads of laundry, getting most of the water blown out of it before bringing it inside to finish drying. It takes days to dry at 51*.
Day-39
Sailors Run was driven hard before the wind with the mizzen back up, so during increasing winds this am I dropped the mizzen down. It was then that I noticed one of the small nylon socket pieces had disappeared and the boom at the gooseneck had come out of its socket.
Now I must manufacture another one or improvise, I have an Idea about using some hose material to pick up the slop between the bottom and the top of the boom jaws. I have a French rig and it is very different from most goosenecks on the mizzen. I had rebuilt the main goose neck less than a year ago and it appears now I should have done this one as well.
I also noticed that the 7-8 inch piece of 3 inch diameter fire hose that I had clamped on the main engine exhaust has been washed away by a large wave. I had hat there to discourage large waves from forcing water into the exhaust system. I will replace it but it means hanging by your toes over the stern of the boat and working in Icy cold water. “YUK”
I don’t remember mentioning that during that 50 kts in the low about a week ago my Windex wind direction indicator blew off the top of the mast, so now it is much harder to see the wind at night as I use to get a visual on that, from inside the boat with the try color illuminating it. Now we are back to “tell tales” on the stainless steel rigging.
The Jefe’ “Hauling Ass” for the “Horn”