Watching the Barograph

Last night I watched the barograph, tenth of millibar by tenth of millibar rise, but incredibly slowly because essentially we were going at the same speed as the storm, and couldn’t slow down and let it go away. But finally, after many hours, I fell asleep for a nap, and when I woke up, there was a similar crashing of the chaotic sea state, but less howling of the wind, and a look at the data log of windspeed for that hour or so that I was asleep showed that the speed had come down to 25 knots.

Bohlken Baro – Kerguelen Low

Wempe Barograph Storm

Through the morning, I watched and waited for it to return, but it didn’t. So eventually, we put up the staysail (J3), and then when the wind dropped some more, we did our downwind mainsail reef dance and headed up into the wind, and hoisted the mainsail to reef 2. Later we rolled up the staysail (J3) and rolled out the solent (J2). (Click for sail plans). The sea was still up, still 12-15 foot seas, hardly diminished because the 25 knots will sustain them quite a bit. And we took off on some scary surfs, which we are still doing now at dinner time, hitting 23/24/25 knots regularly. It scares me.

We did pass another milestone today, 90 degrees East longitude, halfway from the prime meridian to the international Date Line.

We are now 6 hours ahead of UTC/GMT/Z, and 11 hours ahead of Boston time, my home region. Nearly halfway around the world from home.

My friends here in the south have had some issues. Alan broke some rigging, Enda’s computer is out. Eric has sorted his engine. We’ve fixed our hydro leg problem, and the hydros, despite all the challenges of the internal hydraulic tubing, are hanging in there.

Position
47° 16’S x 92° 07’E
Course
058° True
Speed
17.7 knots
True Wind Speed
25.7 knots
True Wind Direction
278°
Sails
2 reefs in mainsail, solent (J2)
Air temperature
46.4°F / 8° C cockpit
Sea Temperature
49.3°F / 9.6°C