Coordinates:31 21.9 S 176 36.6 E
Bearing: 50 T
Boat Speed:6.2
Wind Direction: SW
Wind Strength: 17
Sea state: 2 m
Crew health: great
Fish caught:nil
Other points of interest:
another sunny day and another dark moonless night last night . A few squalls came through which is why, particularly at night, we only have a modest amount of sail up. Often the towering black masses of cloud bearing down from up wind dont deliver much , maybe 25 to 30 knots for a short while .
There was another just after dawn and Ted had gone below at the change of watch to sleep , a relatively benign cloud mass loomed into view but this one packed quite a punch and the wind reached 30 knots and kept on rising . At the time we were running before the wind and had not organised any extra sail on which was good . The wind must have been somewhere between 45 and 50 knots it kept on coming. It is one of those situations when you appreciate two long lean hulls which makes the boat very directionally stable, compared with say a monohull with a deep fin keel and no skeg. As I moved quickly forward to lower the sail, spray flying everywhere, there was an ominous bang as the fitting on the outer end of the pole broke Ted was on deck now and we pulled down and secured the flogging sail. No serious damage as a block has been lashed on and it is now working fine. A keeler unless well handled could so easily broach and be laid on its side in those conditons.
The wind is still holding well in the SW so progess is pleasing
Don
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