29.01.2006
RECEIVED 00H33 ON 29th JANUARY 2006
Last time I sailed through the centre of the low, I enjoyed the lull and put more sail up and then got caught out as the wind shifted for the tack and increased all at once. As I said before I am pleased to say I am learning from my mistakes and during the night in the pitch darkness we were almost becalmed. The barometer stopped falling as it had been doing steadily on my journey south. The wind was coming from all directions and no one direction. I recognised where I was, Aviva and I had made it far enough south to avoid the storm force winds on the northwest quadrant and we were passing through the centre, or just below the secondary low developing.
It may have been rather slow for a couple of hours but after not enjoying the day of beating into 30 - 40 knot winds and knowing that I had another 36 hours of it to come I took advantage of the lull, and refrained from putting more sail up. Instead, I ate some food, that wasn't chocolate, something that I hadn't managed to do during the day before. I had a hot drink, I did the washing up, I pumped the forward bilge and I generally made sure I was happy with my sails before the next blow came.
This time in the space of 20 minutes the breeze went from 8 knots to 25 knots and I could relax and watch it rather than have the fight I endured last time. During the lull when I did tack the sails and take up on the reef lines that had stretched a little, and check the deck, it was unbelievably cold. The sea temperature had dropped to 8.6 degrees and the air temperature had definitely dropped. Just from touching one wet rope my hands were like ice. Everything was wet and not just from the amount of seawater we had been shipping over the deck but also from the drizzle that was permanently in the air. Our move south had taken us pretty close to the Antarctic Convergence zone as it peaks in this area to the north. For the first time when sailing in light airs as we had been during the centre of this low we had travelled backwards, despite the fact we had been pointing west we had travelled south east. Never before had the current overcome the boat speed like that. But still I was determined to eat, drink and not get caught out and for the hour this happened I am grateful. For now I am back on the breeze pounding through big ocean waves in 35 knots of wind again, only this time on the other tack and slowly climbing to the north as we make our best course to the west.
Once more the barometer rises and the sea temperature should go up also. The air temperature has definitely stayed low as the southerly component to the wind brings with it the coldness from Antarctica.
Dee & Aviva
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