Total miles sailed so far=14,118 NM.
Miles sailed last three days=456 NM.
Miles left to go to Cape Leeuwin=390 NM.
Top Speed so far=14,1kts.
THE REST OF THE STORY
Day-103.
24hr.Run=170NM. Pos. Lat.44*52’S. Long.95*39’E. Weather=Winds Gale35-45+WSW. Seas=15-20Ft.WSW. Bar=1003mb Cabin Temp=53*-55*.
Feeling much better today, and we are sailing with double reefed mizzen and Patches the [Genoa]. Wind and seas are gradually building now blowing 30-40 knots with seas 15-18 feet and Patches had to be furled in and then hoisted the stay sail in place of it.
When I went forward to hoist the stay sail, I was shocked to see the winch handle had been flipped over board, and this is the second locking handle I have lost. I have never lost a handle in all the years of sailing, until this trip, and the reason it’s happening now is the new shallow boots that hold the handles I recently replaced them, and should have realized these were no good.
Now that leaves me with just two handles left, and neither locks in place making them dangerous, because when they pop out of the winches on the mast they can very easily take your teeth out. Sometimes you have to hang on to the handle to keep it in position by the mast, and that will not work with a handle that pops out. For now, I will not leave any more handles in the main mast boot.
Later in the afternoon I found myself hanging over the stern replacing a pulley wheel at the bottom of the wind vane, as the old one was hanging up and chafing the lines.
Day-104
24hr.Run=146NM.Pos. Lat.44*54’S. Long.102*28’E. Weather= Winds 35-40kts WSW. Seas=15-20 WSW. Bar=1010mb Cabin Temp=55*-57*.
Today we are in the second day of the gale and charging along under staysail alone.
Yesterday when taking a shower, I noticed I have lost some weight, a difficult thing to notice with all the clothes I normally wear. I can’t help but wonder why, as it seems I eat a lot.
To some up my explanation of the weight loss, comes down to three theories I have:
1) That because I’m cold all the time I find myself shivering at times, and that requires lots of calories to be spent.
2) The second logical thing is the “Whiskey Shakes”, but without them there would be days where I got no exercise at all.
3) My third, and possibly the biggest contributor to the weight loss is, being Scared. Like you have heard of people being scared straight, Well, I think just possibly you can be “Scared Skinny”.
Now just think of what a great new sailing term this is, like when you come in from a wild day of sailing on the bay, and someone asks, ”How was the weather out there?” You can simply reply “Scared Skinny”!
Day-105
24hr.Run=140NM. Pos. Lat.45*09’S, Long.105*43E. Weather=Winds WSW30-40kts. Seas 15-20ft. Bar=1012mb
Today is the third day in gale force conditions, and since we are running under stay sail alone requires very little sail handling. The one thing I did have to do was drop the stay sail down and reattach a couple of hanks that were flipped out during a couple of hard pops that that sail endured.
We are pretty accustomed to dealing with such weather, but the only problem is the seas are up pretty good now and it looks like something worse is headed our way, and should arrive in about 36 hrs. so “HANG ON”.
I realize now I should have put an external antenna on the AIS unit, as down here at 45* south the satellite coverage is not so good and occasionally the AIS loses its position setting off a very loud alarm.
Last night while I tried to sleep the alarm was going off every minute and I had to get up to cancel it, after about 15 alarms I shut the FFFEN thing off, then an hour later turned it on only to have the same thing happen again. I must assume I’m in a bad area, and that things should improve as I close on Australia. I did find a way to cancel the alarm for no GPS position and that is fine as it gets the position back within a minute anyhow.
“Scared Skinny” the Jefe’.
BET JEFF WOULD LIKE TO BE DOING THIS RIGHT ABOUT NOW WITH ALL THOSE GALES HE IS HAVING ?