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American Spirit II - Day 259; Showers, Squalls & a High Pressure Ridge Greet the Fleet in the Indian Ocean; Sunday, September 21, 2014



Up at 6:00 AM. The wind is 15/16 dead astern and our speed thru the water is 7.3 knots and 7.7 knots over the land. We're still motor sailing. Half the sky is obstructed with dark clouds; the moon is trying to set astern with a planet to its upper left. To stop motoring would require a sail adjustment, but with Joel sleeping I'll wait until he's up for the morning 9:00 AM net.

The sun rose above the clouds on the horizon at 7:15 AM local Bali time. I have a sense of foreboding as we enter an area of expected higher winds and possible foul weather by this evening. The calm before the storm, if you will. We'll see.

At 7:54 AM we're surfing with the waves up to 8.5 knots. More white caps are forming, meaning the wind is at 15 knots and building. The weather forecast that the Rally sends us has the weather forecast spelled out in 7 different grids from Bali to Christmas Island to Cocos Keeling. The grid we're in now is 10F; and the next one, our last, will be 10G. With boats spread out over hundreds of miles, different grids will apply to different boats.

At 8:10 AM Joel calls me from below to state that the VHF radios have lost GPS. I turn the E80 Chart Plotter off and on again to reboot the system. This is a new problem. Not sure what's causing it. Never a dull moment. At least the fix is simple. After turning off the chart plotter I then had to reset the cross track. This is a dotted line from out boat's position to the next waypoint; in this case, a waypoint at the finish line north of Cocos Keeling.

I put the canvas insert back in between the dodger and bimini at 8:35 AM so the sun won't wake Joel up and to lessen the heat of the sun as it climbs in the sky. Its a challenge putting it up by yourself even in non-windy conditions.

The 9:00 AM communication's net was hosted by Laurie from Nexus. A tense air of expectation was felt by the people on the net. Wind and weather are coming.

At 9:30 AM we turn the engine off.

I typed the previous day's log at 11:20 AM, then try sending it at 11:51 AM. No luck. Will try again later this evening.

Our noon position is 11 degrees, 31 minutes South; and 100 degrees, 58 minutes East. We are 242 miles from Cocos Keeling.

From 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM I try to nap. A clicking sound in my aft cabin has me looking for the source in the cabin and cockpit above for 15 minutes until I find it. The culprit was a small metal piece attached to the zipper of my laptop case. It was banging against some wood in my cabin as the boat rocked back and forth.

Joel put a reef in the mainsail as the wind came up; 20 knots and building. We've decided to go for a Tuesday morning daytime entry into the lagoon, so we need to slow the boat down. Back home in Florida 20 knots is what 'small craft advisories' are issued by the Coast Guard. That's trade wind sailing.

At 3:47 PM I finished reading 'The Life of Frances Drake,' a famous English sailor. The second to the last paragraph in the book states: '...Drake' voyage around the world and the wealth he brought back from it fired the manhood of England. England took over, as it were, the exploration of the world, and took it from the hands of Frances Drake.' Drake is also given credit for England's new naval strategy of offense over defense. Attacking an enemy like Spain on their own coast line and in their own colonies instead of having their ships stand by the English coastline to defend it was a novel new idea. He is also given credit for forming the East Indian Trading Company.

At 3:52 PM the wind is 19 knots, our speed thru the water is 4.8 and over the land 5.5. Still cloudy.

I've seen more flying fish in the Indian Ocean than I ever did in the Pacific Ocean. As our boat plows thru the water dozens give flight at a time. You can even hear their wings (fins) beating on the surface of the water there are so many of them flying at a time.

Another book I'm reading by Patrick O'Brien involving Captain Jack Aubrey, has Aubrey state in a typical English way about being late to an engagement: 'In danger of committing unpunctuality.' Only the English would talk like that. And some still do today, as we've found out in the Rally.

At 4:40 PM I can visually see Lluiton on our port bow, 4.4 miles ahead of us. The wind is now 22 knots. We're sailing into a black cloud. How can that be if the clouds are going west like us?

A small rain shower hits us at 5:05 PM. Another reef is put in the jib. Reef early and often. We're now in the new weather pattern predicted in the forecast.

Dinner at 5:20 PM is freeze dried Classic Beef Curry; corn kernels; and sliced mango.

Laurie from Nexus hosted the 6:00 PM communications net. Nexus and the boats ahead of us 50 to 100 miles are already in much higher winds, rain and squalls. We're heading that way, so we know we're going to get the same tonight.

At 6:33 PM I turned on the SSB and sent out a log and emails. My first attempt was disconnected. The second also to Brunei, Philippines; 1,294 miles away at at heading of 41 degrees True; was fast. I was done sending and receiving by 6:38 PM.

I took a nap before my watch from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM. I tried to sleep but couldn't. Joel was on watch and had two waves 'poop' into the cockpit. One from the transom and the other over the port side. I had read a book last year called 'Circumnavigating Low Key' whereby the author said that there was no way of sailing across the Indian Ocean without getting 'pooped' at least once. 'Pooped' is a term to describe getting your cocking filled with sea water by a boarding wave. We speculate that with the wind freshening the waves initially are steep with a short spacing between them. Hence a greater chance of getting pooped. Later on when the waves are less steep and further apart we don't take any more poops.

when I went up to go to the cockpit to relieve Joel at 9:00 PM, he had the cockpit doors closed so no water would get below from a boarding sea.

During my watch the winds averaged 22 to 27 knots; and it was very noisy with the crashing waves and howling wind. One wave crashed just aft of the transom and exploded in foam and sound. It was really loud. A near miss. Another wave incident I had was a wave that 'tripped' our keel, making the boat rock violently, and I had water on the leeward or starboard side of the boat try to climb into the cockpit. It shot down the starboard like a cannon shot. Impressive. We now had 2 1/2 reefs in the mainsail and 2 reefs in the jib. Part of the reef reasoning is to slow down the boat for a daytime Tuesday entry into Cocos Keeling; not that we needed that much reefing due to the conditions we were experiencing. During my watch I was also wearing my full fowl weather gear - farmer john type pants with suspenders; jacket and cap. No moon or stars out now. Gloomy. I positioned myself under the dodger on the port and windward side of the cockpit.

At 9:36 PM the wind was steady 25 to 30 knots. But I'm starting to see some stars now. Yeah!

We're caught between two weather systems: showers and squalls to our north; and a strong high pressure system to the south. When you hear the word 'south' think 'Southern Ocean.'

A 'slapper wave' got me at 9:45 PM, getting my right arm wet. A slapper wave is a wave that hits the boat perpendicular to it, makes a loud 'slapping' sound and then sprays you with water. More a nuisance than anything else.

At 10:30 PM the waves are more on the beam than previously, where they were quartering waves off our port quarter aft the beam. The waves on the beam tend to trip the keep more, causing a rocking motion; whereas waves from behind us on the aft quarter are more likely to cause the bow to round up into the wind as a really large wave breaks and cresses as it passes us.

Joel relieved me at midnight.

Brian Fox

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