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Starblazer - 09/11/2014 – Not much to say!



Yesterday evening was horrible, strong winds and big seas. Trying to sleep
on my first off watch was very difficult. When John woke me up at 2300 he
said the winds had been up to 30 knots but had settled back to the 20-25
knot range. We were well reefed and in no danger but there is a niggling
worry at the back of both our minds about the repaired forward lower shroud.
We check it regularly and it is rock solid but….. The night improved and by
midnight the seas were smoother, the wind was down to 18-22 knots and the
moon suddenly rose above the cloud layer and shone like a searchlight on us.

On balance I think it is safe to say that Sunday has been a much better day
than Saturday. For the first time in 3 days I have been sitting in the
cockpit this afternoon in a tee shirt (long sleeves though) and minus
oilskin trousers and fleece. The wind has dropped steadily as we head as
far east of south as possible, the wind has other ideas and we are moving
much closer to south. We are now in a position where less than half of the
distance we travel is actually towards New Zealand, not ideal.
Mid-afternoon we decided to tack and try motorsailing towards our
destination but gave up within about 10 minutes. The new heading took us
straight into the waves and swell, not nice. More importantly the GRIB
files we have, predicting the weather, indicate that we need to be another
degree further south at least to avoid stronger headwinds. By tomorrow
morning we should be in a position to tack, let’s wait and see!

The only problem today was that the jib sheet snapped again but we have
replacing it down to a fine art. Other than that there has been no
‘excitement’ I am pleased to report.

Our progress is slow and we are further west than any of the other boats,
partly because we have sailed with the main out a bit further than necessary
and stayed further off the wind. We have done this to protect the rig
however, after last night’s winds, John has much more confidence in its
stability. Now the wind has dropped even further but also veered. When we
could only sail at less than 4 knots making no miles towards New Zealand it
was time to start the engine. The jib is rolled away but the main is still
up with two reefs in it. The winds are expected to veer further (go
clockwise) so we should be able to make our required heading on the other
tack sometime tomorrow. We just have to wait to see what the night brings.

We are still actively reducing our prohibited foods mountain. Breakfast, as
it is Sunday, was eggs and bacon with grilled tomatoes (all prohibited),
that finished the bacon. Lunch was bean salad, cucumber sticks and open
sandwiches of ham, smoked salmon and cheese. Most of those items are
prohibited but apparently they are easing up on the restrictions on dairy
products, still better safe than having the cheese confiscated when we could
have eaten it. Dinner was Beef Bourguignon with mashed potatoes, carrots
and sweetcorn, again all prohibited except the canned sweetcorn. One
advantage in having a longer passage than anticipated is that we will need
to discard far less food!

Joyce



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