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American Spirit II - Day 303; The Indian Ocean is Still Windy & Acts Up Twice Today; Tuesday, November 4, 2014



At 5:00 AM the cloud cover disappeared. The sunrise at 5:55 AM had a small layer of clouds obstruct the lower limb, so no green flash.

I relieved Jeremy at 6:00 AM. At 6:24 AM a BIG slapper wave hit the side of the boat and threw water over the dodger and bimini. It also wrapped around the inside of the dodger and nailed me in the right side of my body.

I slept poorly last night, getting 2 1/2 hours of sleep. I woke at the 3:00 AM watch change and couldn't go back to sleep. Additionally two drops of water fell on my head in the main cabin where I was sleeping. The boat is very dry so these two drops concern me.

At 6:43 AM the wind is 20/25 and we're moving at 6.0 thu the water and over the land. The waves are still a problem. They keep tripping our keel rocking the boat. With most of the clouds gone no more squalls...for now. The sun in a BIG morale booster. A lot better than low overcast clouds.

I pick up a ship 26 miles away on the AIS. We're in shipping lanes so we can expect a lot of traffic from here on out. 

At 6:55 AM I let out more mainsail and jib. The main has 1 3/4 reefs in it and the jib 1 1/4 reefs. I continue letting more mainsail out at 7:00 AM. The wind is 17 knots and we're moving thru the water at 6.1 knots and over the land at 6.7 knots.

At 8:00 AM the barometer is 1017, up from 1014 yesterday at 1:40 PM. So, what hit us yesterday was a High Pressure Cold Front with gale force winds and squalls. Wonderful.

Tracy on Folie a Deux calls at 8:05 AM as we just popped up on their AIS. Tracy tells me that their winds topped out at 34.4 knots yesterday. I tell her we topped out at 37 knots. Many boats in the fleet were reporting 35 knots of wind - gale force wind. The principal 'damage' to Folie in the storm was that Lucy's room got 'tossed.' The Indian Ocean does that.

At 8:10 AM I continue putting more mainsail out. I'm down to 1/2 reef now. The wind is 15/18 and we're moving thru the water at 5.5 knots and over the land at 6.1 knots.

Tommy from NDS Darwin hosts the 9:00 AM net.

I nap from 10:00 AM to noon.

Our noon position is 26 degrees, 2 minutes South; 48 degrees, 45 minutes East; and we're 101 miles from our waypoint 100 miles south of Madagascar and 886 miles from Richard's Bay.

The sky changes, again, with the advent of low, overcast clouds; and the wind picks up to 18/24.

I get pooped at 12:57 PM. A small one, with the wave dumping its froth in the aft end of the cockpit.

By 1:07 PM the wind is 25-30 knots.

From 4:00 PM to 5:15 PM I type up two logs and emails.

At 4:30 PM the boat rounds up BIG. At 5:15 PM Saphir and Folie a Deux are coming up behind us.

Dinner at 5:40 PM is freeze dried Pasta Primavera; butter beans; and fruit cocktail.

Tommy from NDS Darwin hosts the 6:00 PM net, with Tim from Ghost helping out as not everyone can head Darwin because they're so far ahead of most other boats. Tim from Ghost says he has a 3 knot current helping him out. I ask for his position so we can sail there and get the same current.

During the net Erling from Saphir says that a squid hit his boat's mast and black ink ended up all over their mainsail. They got 'squided!' That's a new word I just invented.

Jeremy goes to bed at 6:30 PM; and I nap from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. During my nap a portable VHF radio dislodges itself from a port shelf and flies across the cabin in my direction. We've been in a lot of rough conditions the last 10 months, but this is the first time this radio has gone flying. Thank the Indian Ocean.

At 8:00 PM as Joel was watching the chart plotter, the current changes in front of his eyes from 2 knots against us to 1 1/2 to 2 knots with us. As the current is no longer against us the waves diminish significantly and immediately. Smoother sailing, but its still very rough out.

At 9:00 PM the wind is 25 knots and we're moving at 6.9 knots thru the water and 8.6 knots over the land. Its almost a full moon and some stars are visible. At 9:13 PM the moon, which is behind the boat, is lighting up my wake and its a marvelous sight. A big, frothy white wake.

At 10 PM the wind is 29 knots and we're moving at 6.6 knots thru the water and 9.3 over the land. The main is reefed and only a small amount of jib is out to keep us from rounding up too much when a big wave passes by. We're heading dead down wind. 29 knots is 5 knots under gale.

Before Joel relieves me the wind is still up at 26 knots and we're moving at 6.6 knots thru the water and 8.5 over the land.

As I'm down below in the cabin waking Joel up and making him a cup of coffee the wind shifts dramatically and the jib and mainsail backwind. Fortunately we have a preventer on the boom or it could have been a damaging jibe. I turn the stove off and race back into the cockpit, turning the auto pilot off and grabbing the wheel. I steer us downwind and wait for Joel to come up so we can jibe the boat. This wind change is ominous and will have a big effect on some of the boats in the fleet tomorrow. 

From 12:40 AM to 1:00 AM I send out logs and emails, connecting to a SSB station in Africa, 1,062 miles away at a bearing of 264 degrees. The send is quick, even though I get disconnected 2 times. The receive is quick, also. I send 7,619 bytes of information and receive 13,036.

In bed at 1:10 AM.

Brian Fox

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