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American Spirit II - Day 307; The Race to Richards Bay & a Bad Weather GRIB Report; Saturday, November 8, 2014



Last night we downloaded a weather GRIB report that was not good. It stated that the wind was going to swing to the southwest at 20+ knots Monday morning at 6:00 AM UTC (10:00 AM boat time). This is a half day sooner than the previous weather report. Therefore, we have to be in by then or we risk an ugly and possibly dangerous condition in crossing the Aghulas Current. As a result of this information, we turned on the motor at 10:17 PM last night (Friday). We have more than enough wind to sail to Richards Bay, but motor sailing, even with 20 knots of wind, will be quicker by a half knot to 1 1/2 knots. So off we go.

Also, yesterday I ended the log (Day 306) prematurely, so I will resend it with the added information in it.

Up at 6:00 AM. I relieved Jeremy and noticed before he went below that we'd picked up a squid passenger during the night. A 4 inch specimen. We're always sorry that sea creatures die when landing on our boat, but there's nothing we can do. At least this squid did not ink the boat when it died. We've had that happen before and its almost impossible to get squid ink off.

The wind is down to 11 knots dead astern and we're only doing 6.5 knots thru the water. I increase the engine RPM's from 1600 to 2000 and our speed increases to 7.0+ knots.

At 6:40 AM I see Folie a Deux and Saphir on the AIS, astern of us 4 miles. Both boats, like us, are motoring now. Tracey told me that Merlyn of Poole had sent them an email about the new wind forecast on the GRIB file and that a copy was sent to us also. Since we do SSB only after the sun sets we haven't seen it yet. Thank you Jonathan of Merlyn. Tracey also said that Saphir had a run in with a ship. Probably a collision scenario. Those are not good.

We need to average 7 knots all the way to Richards Bay or we may get caught in the southwest wind Monday morning. We can easily average that speed or more so, but the problem is that we have to go thru a large area of contrary current first. This 'counter current' is actually an eddy off of the main feeder current for the Aghulas Current that runs east to west. We're south of that current but can't avoid the eddy. We know where the current is because before leaving Reunion Joel downloaded its position from an unclassified US Navy web site.

At 6:50 AM I notice that I can't pull the preventer in easily. Upon looking forward, I notice that it is caught on the lip of the forward hatch. Violating one of our 'prime directives,' I hook my tether to the jack line and go forward to free it. Its a boat policy that no one go forward of the cockpit alone unless someone else is in the cockpit in case they fall overboard. I didn't want to wake Joel or Jeremy, but with the preventer loose, the boom is bouncing around too much.

At 7:00 AM the wind is 12/14 knots and we're moving at 6.3 knots thru the water and 7.1 knots over the land.

At 7:30 AM I talked to Tim on Folie a Deux and he confirmed the weather GRIB information we had with a different GRIB file he got.

At 8:00 AM I see Saphir's sails to leeward about 5 miles. A squall line is coming at us from windward, but unlike in the past, I'm not going to reef because we need all the speed we can get. There are also rain showers all around us; and its cloudy but not low, ugly overcast clouds.

Tim from Ghost hosts the 9:00 AM net.

Breakfast at 9:30 AM consists of eggs, potato, fruit cocktail and bread.

At 10:00 AM the wind is 18/20 knots and we're moving thru the water at 7.1 knots and over the land at 7.2 knots. We've got a vibration in the boat's propeller so we put the engine first in neutral, then reverse to try to get rid of the vibration. It works somewhat. Still a vibration, but less so. It's always something.

At 11:00 AM I call the cruise ship Rotterdam on VHF channel 16 and advise them that there are 3 sail boats in front of his ship, 9 miles away. The officer in charge acknowledges that they see us. The Rotterdam is 794 feet in length and carries 1,250 passengers. Its a small cruise ship when compared to those that carry over 2,000 passengers. At any rate, I ask the officer to give us a weather report, and he does; then I ask him to give us current information on the Aghulas Current. He comes back and says that the southerly current starts at 35 degrees East and normally flows at 1 to 1 1/2 knots; and that the current in the apex of the Aghulas is currently traveling at 2 knots. This is huge information because if the current is only 2 knots then we can sail thru it with a southwest wind as long as the wind is not over 25 knots. I go on to explain that the three sail boats in front of him are part of a Rally of 21 boats sailing around the world; that there are 18 other ones out there; and tell him where and when we started and when and where we'll finish. He's very interested in what I've told him and says that he'll include that information in the ship's daily newsletter to the passengers. How cool is that! I ask the ship's officer where they're stopping in South Africa besides Durban, and he says Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. I tell him that we're also going to those ports.

Our noon position is 28 degrees, 22 minutes South; 37 degrees, 25 minutes East; and we're 281 miles from Richards Bay. We traveled 175 nautical miles from noon yesterday at an average speed of 7.3 knots.

Joel naps from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM, and then I nap from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM.

When I wake up I find that we've jibed the mainsail, so we're on a starboard tack instead of a port tack; and that a 2.3 knot current is moving to the NNE. We're traveling West. In order to get thru the current as quickly as possible, we 'square off' to it. This has us going 20 to 30 degrees to the right of our destination, but once we're thru this current we will eventually pick up another current that is heading south and we'll ride that all the way to Richards Bay. Unfortunately, we may be in the 'bad' current for 6 to 10 hours.

Dinner at 5:30 PM is freeze dried Ravioli with Meat Sauce; Jasmine rice; corn kernels; and chilled fruit cocktail.

Tim from Ghost hosts the 6:00 PM net. Many of the bigger boats will get in to Richards Bay before the Sunday morning net at 9:00 AM.

From 6:00 PM to 7:06 PM I type a log and emails, then connect with SSB to a land station in Africa 491 miles away at a bearing of 274 True. Both the send and receive are quick.

I relieve Joel early at 8:15 PM for my 9:00 PM to midnight watch. At 8:40 PM he wind is 16/18 and we're moving at 7.0 knots thru the water and 6.6 over the land.

At 8:50 PM I call Tim from Folie a Deux. We can't hear him too well, so we connect using the SSB radio instead. Tim says that he downloaded two different weather GRIB files; and that one shows the southwest wind commencing in Richards Bay Monday morning at 6:00 AM UTC; but another one shows the wind switch not occurring until 12:00 UTC. A BIG 6 hour difference.

At 10:11 PM the wind is 18/20 knots and we're moving at 7.5 knots thru the water and 6.2 knots over the land. The wind is moving starboard of the transom, a broad reach, and with the seas and current against us its very uncomfortable with a lot of high gravity rock and roll. An easy night to get thrown out of the cockpit into the ocean. I get cold so I have to go below and put on the thermal underwear.

The clouds are low and dark and so thick that the full moon is not visible. We have one reef in the mainsail and a short jib out. The moon tries to come out at 10:55 PM, but doesn't quite make it until 11:40 PM, just when I'm getting ready to go off watch.

I wake Joel at 11:45 PM and he takes over watch at midnight. After that I'm going to send out this log a day early and then download a new weather GRIB file. Unfortunately I sent this uncompleted log out earlier tonight. I hope everyone figures it out.

Brian Fox

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