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American Spirit II - Day 305; Motor Sailing and Lighter Winds; Thursday, November 6, 2014



Relieved Jeremy 7:00 AM. Heavy overcast sky, rain showers all over. Wind on the bow. Cold. Wind 12 knots and we're moving at 4.8 knots thru the water and 5.2 over the land.

I slept great last night, from 2:00 AM to 6:30 AM - 4 1/2 hours of straight continuous sleep. After the stress of the near gale, gale, constant slappers and being pooped a fair amount, it was like I slept 8-12 hours. Joel remarks to me later that he had the same good sleep.

Polaris hosted the 9:00 AM net. I think it was Jon but not sure. First time. Good job. At the end of the net Tim from Ghost gave us a GRIB weather update.

Breakfast at 9:30 AM consisted of eggs, potato, apricot halves and bread.

Our noon position was 27 degrees, 47 minutes South; 43 degrees, 27 minutes East; and were 603 miles from Richards Bay. The wind is 6.9 knots and we're moving at 4.8 knots thru the water and 5.2 knots over the land. A new wind is coming. Usually that's not good. We'll see.

I napped from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM.

At 2:24 PM the wind is 15/16 and we're moving at 5.8 knots thru the water and 5.9 knots over the land. The wind is from the south/southsoutwest. Still motor sailing with mainsail only. Big waves, reason not sailing now. Pounding a little. Uncomfortable. Like riding a bronco.

Joel napped from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM.

We fueled the boat, putting 5 jerry cans of diesel into the main tank; 25 gallons. We do this by using a siphon with a check valve and a filter/funnel. It was quite bumpy when we did this, the bumpiest fueling we've done in 10 months.

We turned the engine off at 4:23 PM. The wind is now 12/13 knots and we're moving at 5.9 knots thru the water and 6.1 over the land. We could have and should have turned the motor off earlier. Oh well.

At 5:00 PM a clanking sound gets too loud to ignore anymore. Joel dismantles the starboard compass and looks down, and can see the loose cable making the noise. Not something that we can fix when the boat is moving; and its not critical to do so now anyway. After checking it, the noise stops. Go figure. Boats.

Dinner at 5:40 PM is Corned Beef out of a can, followed by freeze dried White Chili with Rice and apricot halves.

Polaris hosts the 6:00 PM net.

The sun sets at 7:25 PM Reunion start time. Its cloudy, so no chance of a green flash.

I nap from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM. A good one. I actually get a good hour of sleep.

I relieve Joel early at 8:45 PM for the start of my 9:00 PM to midnight watch. There is a full moon behind the boat. Stars are out but I can only see the bright ones due to the bright moon light.

At 10:00 PM I shake a reef out of the mainsail. We now have one reef in the main and one in the jib. The wind is 12/15 and we're moving at 5.5 knots thru the water and 6.3 knots over the land. The wind is just east of south; and we're on the rumb line to Richards Bay.

At 11:00 PM we sail into a heavy overcast area. I wonder if higher winds and/or a storm is coming. By 11:30 PM the wind is gusting and I put a second reef in the mainsail. Its raining lightly or the humidity is so high that it seems like its raining. Really low clouds.

Joel relieves me at midnight and I try to connect with a SSB station in Africa, the Philippines and the Red Sea - but no luck. No propagation. We think its because of the 100% humidity. I try again at 12:30 AM but still no luck, even after turning off the hydro generator and wind turbine.

Brian Fox

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