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American Spirit II - Day 308; Heading Down the Stretch to Richards Bay Trying to Beat a New Low Pressure System; Sunday, November 9, 2014



Up at 6:45 AM. Turned the SSB radio on and tried to send out emails and log, but no luck. Still no propagation.

Relieved Jeremy at 7:15 AM. As I'm coming up the stairs to the cockpit he points out a double ender rainbow to me. Cool. Unfortunately I'm too busy to look at it and 'log' it. I'd already lost my coffee on the way up the stairs as we went thru a giant round up.

A cargo ship called the Spar Neptun was 5 miles astern from Saphir and Saphir was trying to talk to the ship about what course they're taking. The ship finally said that they would pass Saphir to their (Saphir's) port. Erling asked the ship for a weather report and got today's weather but not tomorrow's, which is what we all really want.

The wind is 16/18 and we're making 6.7 knots over the ground with a .9 current flowing south instead of north. Its against us, still, so it slows us down a little. Joel said that the current changed from south to north around 3:00 AM last night. Its a low, overcast day with large rain showers everywhere.

At 7:52 AM I called the same ship that Saphir talked to and asked, again, for a weather report for Monday but got nothing. It was sailing to Richards Bay like us. A few minutes later I talked to Saphir and Erling said that the barometer dropped a lot and was now 1011. Great. We're racing to Richards Bay to try to beat a low pressure system coming our way fast.

At 8:37 AM the wind is 18 knots and we're moving 7.3 knots thru the water and 6.7 knots over the land.

Tracy from Folie a Deux hosts the 9:00 AM net.

Breakfast at 9:30 is in the main cabin instead of in the cockpit, and consists of eggs, potato, peach halves and bread. Its so rough that I decide after I cooked breakfast that I should have just boiled water and had a freeze dried dinner for breakfast.

We fueled the boat at 11:00 AM, putting 5 jerry cans or 25 gallons of fuel into the main tank. A difficult task when you're bouncing around in the Indian Ocean. Instead of using the siphon like we have always done in the past, along with a funnel, we just stick the pour spout in the deck fitting and let gravity take over. We turned down wind and throttled down the motor when we did this.

Our noon position is 28 degrees, 72 minutes South; 34 degrees, 35 minutes East; and we're 133 miles from Richards Bay. We traveled 148 miles since noon yesterday averaging 6.2 knots. Pretty good with all the counter current we've had since yesterday.

At 12:03 PM a BIG slapper wave hits along the starboard side of the boat and inundates me, my log book and knocks off my cap. Its going overboard, my cap,but I stab my hand up and catch it as it shoots off my head.

The sun pokes out at 12:05 PM, and we see blue sky. The wind is 18/22 knots and we're moving at 7.2 knots thru the water and 6.4 over the land. The sun disappears at 12:19 PM.

From 12:20 PM to 1:00 PM I empty out the refrigerator to clean an 'egg mess.' Six eggs escaped their egg box and committed suicide on the bottom of the refrigerator, coating all the beer, coke, diet coke, and wine bottles with...egg batter. I bet that will smell eventually! And who wants to drink a can of coke that is slimy with egg batter. Not me. The boat lurches when I'm reaching way down into the bottom of the refrigerator (its a top loader) and a couple of my left side ribs get the edge of the galley counter shoved up between them. Isn't this fun?!

I try to nap from 1:00 PM to 1:40 PM, but no luck. Too bumpy in my berth. Joel then goes down to nap at 1:45 PM and surfaces a couple of hours later.

Its now sunny out with white thin clouds. Actually a little warm. The wind is 22 knots and we're moving at 7.0 knots thru the water and 7.0 knots over the land. Don't forget that 20 knots is where the Coast Guard at home issue 'small craft warnings.'

At 3:30 PM the current goes from east of south to west of south, with a heading of 187 degrees. We're at 28 degrees, 12 minutes South; 33 degrees, 51 minutes East; and we're 109 miles from Richards Bay. At 4:06 PM the current finally turns to the southwest, at 215 degrees. We're 105 miles from Richards Bay and at 28 degrees, 00 minutes South and 33 degrees, 47 minutes East. I will give this information to the boats behind us as I know they're looking for these same currents like we were.

Dinner at 5:30 PM is freeze dried Beef Stroganoff with Noodles; mixed vegetables; chilled peach halves; and bread.

Tracy from Folie a Deux hosts the 6:00 PM net and its a good one, with a number of boats still out relaying weather GRIB, current, wind, position and ETA information. Roger from Free & BrEasy says he just downloaded a weather GRIB file that says that the dreaded southwest wind is now going to come thru at 2:00 PM UTC time instead of 6:00 AM. If that's true its great news. Tim from Folie is going to download a couple of GRIB files and we're going to get back on the SSB at 9:00 PM tonight so he can give us this information.

I try to connect with the SSB radio at 6:55 PM but have no luck. No propagation. I notice on my SSB computer page that there is a greater than normal number of sun spots right now. Maybe that's why my SSB isn't connecting.

I try the SSB again at 7:45 PM, but still can't connect.

During the impromptu 9:00 PM net we get the latest weather GRIB forecast form Tim on Folie a Deux. Not encouraging as one file says that the next low pressures system, or cyclone as they say down here, is going to hit at 00:01 UTC, or 4:00 AM boat time.

During my 9:00 PM to midnight watch I see lightning, a first in 10 months. The wind is blowing 28 knots, and its so dark out that I can't see my hand in front of my face. Black, low clouds. Its actually a little scary out, with the darkness and high winds. I take the flag on our transom down as its flapping too much and I'm afraid a wave is going to take it away. We have a tiny mainsail out and a small jib. We're motor sailing at 2000 RPM's on the engine. I see two stars or planets out. That's it. We're 55 miles from Richards Bay and safety.


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