Position: 29 degrees, 40 minutes south; 165 degrees, 47 minutes west Only a 99 mile day

Near bliss.

The wind lightening in the early morning to about 10 knots and we still had the storm sails up, so Charisma was very underpowered. At the watch change at 0230 local, we decided to put the mainsail back up. It was the first time we've had it up in a couple days and it was furled, packed and tied up tight for the gale, so getting it back in action on a rolling deck, in the dark wasn't a trivial exercise (these things are always needed "in the dark", aren't they?). Anyway, down the storm sails and up the main! For now we're just leaving the storm sails tied down on the deck. We'll do the clean-up in the daylight.

Right now (about 0330) we're on a very broad reach with a full main and jib. There's massive "star-age", 10 knots of gentle wind and not a light (or anything for that matter) on the horizon within a thousand miles. There's still a bit of a residual swell for this amount of wind so it's a bit rolly, but from time to time we get into one of those quiet, blissful grooves where Charisma is steady, you look up and can feel the wind gently caress your face and in the background is the zen garden-like sound of water peacefully burbling by the hull. If this isn't bliss…

Speaking of lights, the compass light LED that allows us to see our course at night is going into failure mode. One the two LED lights inside has gone out. You can still see half the card, but the other half is very faint. I have a parts list on board and found the part number and will try and get it shipped to Tahiti. I would order it now, but the parts list doesn't have an email on it. There's always something to fix. If this thing goes completely out I might have to reprise the famous "Collinator Mark II" compass light that we created on the Transpac when our light went out on Shanti. Remember that Jon Eberly? This version will have to be modified though to be a binnacle instead of bulkhead mount.

All in all though, a mostly nice day. A few squalls, two cockpit showers (and a shave) and a couple more albatross sightings. Really now, what more can you ask for? Well, Sockdolager Muffins to be exact. Ann made a dozen of them today. You can't imagine both how delicious they are and how hard it is to make them - all the ingredients, mixing, rising, rolling, cooking - on a rocking rolling boat. Wow, but worth it. And a special extra treat, she found some Barker's Apricot Preserves. New Zealand's finest and some of the best in the world! Oh yes, it was a good day on board Charisma.

Position: 29 degrees, 53 minutes south; 167 degrees, 51 minutes west A 122 mile day.

Not a bad day's run - an average of 5 knots. It started out pretty boisterous with evening, late night and early morning squalls with some blasting winds. We sailed all night with just the storm trys'l and storm jib. I added the regular jib this afternoon as the winds lightened.

We're in a place right now where the major force of the low has passed us and we're now riding the remainder of the clockwise rotation - so the wind is still west quadrant. Right now, it's SW and tonight it's looking to shift west and then NW which would be nice since we want to stay right around the 30 degree latitude line Right now the SW wind is pushing us northwest a bit. We want to go about 90 degrees, but we're actually going about 60 degrees. If we go higher we risk very light winds, even easterlies as there is a high above us filling in. Below the 30 degree line we can hold 15-20 knots of westerlies at least until the end of the week. If the wind doesn't change tonight we'll jibe in the morning and head southeast. At that point it looks like there's a new low behind us that we'll have to deal with. It's just now forming above New Zealand, so too early to tell how strong it will get or exactly the path. So we plan. As far as tonight, even though the wind is getting light - in the mid-teens, we're going to give ourselves a break and stay with this sail combo and not put the main up until tomorrow. The past week has been a lot of work and we deserve the night off from lots of sail adjustments. I think it's going to be squally anyway, so right around midnight I'll probably be very glad we don't have the main up.

Along with the wind easing, we had blue skies and very large, majestic waves rolling us along. It actually was a gorgeous sailing day. Let's see; we want to go east, the wind is pushing us east, it was a nice day. Hmm, I guess I can't complain too much.

The other event of the day was another albatross sighting. These are just incredible sights to see. They are huge, with 80 something inch wingspans and are most graceful. There is a colony that we visited near Dunedin on the South Island and they told us there that the juveniles, upon leaving the nest go out do not touch land for two years!

Trivia for today - our weather guru in NZ emailed that the low that we were in the last couple days was just described on NZ TV as "The biggest on the planet". It sure felt like that to us.

Position: 30 degrees, 57 minutes south; 169 degrees, 44 minutes west (We only made 64 miles today since much of it was spent hove to)

 

Riding the tiger is what you have to do to go east. You get right on the edge of the big lows in the Southern Ocean and take advantage of the west winds they generate as they circulate clockwise and move east from Australia to South America. Well, sometimes you get too close! The price we pay. If we're too far north we have headwinds from the east and can't go forward, so we are "playing" in an area called "The Variables". Variable winds in other words. Sounds much nicer and more benign that what we spent the last 24 hours in.

Today, it's still a little blustery with WSW winds of 25 knots with occasional squally gusts, but it's been largely blue sky and we know that winds are not building toward something ominous. So just after breakfast this morning we released the wheel, gave it a turn and headed back on our eastbound course. So nice to be sliding down waves at 6 and 7 knots. These are the leftover waves from the gale and our weather guru calls them our "gentle giants". They are pretty impressive. 15 feet towering above, but in general what's known as "long period" swells. Just big old rollers coming up from behind. They sound like freight trains and occasionally one smacks us good, sounding like an explosion and shaking the boat.

It was so nice today, Ann took her first shower (well, on Charisma it's a bucket bath in the cockpit) since we left. It's been a week and I'm told she really needed one. (Don't tell her I said that!) Previously she had managed to wash her hair in the kitchen sink. Too cold for a shower that day.

So, on we go. We've been pretty lucky so far to have such an extended period of westerly winds. Looks like we have about three more days worth before we get to the end of this low. Don't know yet, what we'll find when it poops out - that's part of weather planning on a voyage - looking far enough out to make a change in position that allows you to take advantage of the next favorable system, or at the very least avoid the really worst scenarios of storms and/or headwinds.

Position: 31 degrees, 37 minutes south; 170 degrees, 57 minutes west

It's 2000 local NZ time and we have been hove to since 0600. We basically used a combination of storm sail and locking the rudder hard over to one side to stop Charisma's forward motion, keep her facing the waves and more or less go very slowly backwards at about 1.5 knots away from the direction of the waves (In reality it's a little closer to going sideways, but the effect is the same). The idea here is to keep Charisma going very, very slow and under control in storm conditions and not tire ourselves out wrangling an out of control boat being thrown about by large waves and high wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll stay this way until daybreak as it's still very windy and the sea state is large and confused. Trying to sail downwind (no way to go upwind in these conditions) would be a bad idea for a number of reasons. So we sit and wait. Patience.

The day has been blustery to say the least. We prepared for the onslaught yesterday, so everything was well secured and ready when the wind came. Early in the day the wind was in the 30's, but in the afternoon the storm pulled out all the stops. The waves got steep, about 15 feet and short, the wind came up measured at the deck as sustained 35 knots gusting to 45 knots and then heavy rain. In those conditions another advantage of heaving to is that we just closed the hatch and sat in the warm, comfy cabin. We're getting a little bit of cabin fever, but it's better than the alternative.

I think we're now in the "passing" stage of the beast. The seas have become quite confused since the wind is shifting as the low passes by to the south of us. The barometer is up 3 mb over the last two hours to 1012 which also signifies the low is passing. Ironically enough the "ride" is the most uncomfortable right now that it's been because the seas are so confused. Instead of big rollers all coming down from essentially the same direction, little pyramid shape waves made up of several directions are slapping us around.

Hopefully when the sun comes up and shines some light on the situation we'll be able to see our way to "cracking off" and getting back to our easterly voyage. We will have west wind thanks to this and another low that's rampaging about down south and we want to take advantage of the west wind while we can. Just a more gentle one please.

It's 0600 and after close reaching with storm sails all night in decent conditions wind and sea were getting too high for comfort as we were going fast and slamming into waves. We just hove to and now we're doing 1.5 knots in much more comfort. Peak storm should pass over about 1200 local, so we'll just sit and wait. Maybe read a book. ;-)