17 April 2014

Waiting for a southerly

The last 2-3 days we have been coasting eastwards at about 41 south,
waiting for a southerly to move us north. Originally that was expected
to arrive last night but it now looks like it will hit us mid morning
tomorrow. Our aim will be to make longitude 147W or thereabouts
(currently at 152W) and we have a good wind on the beam so hopefully we
can make that before the southerly dies out, as well as get a good reach
north, hopefully to 35S or so before the southerly moves to the east.

The night before last we had the winds strengthen to gale force
overnight, rather unexpectedly, so we hove to and got some sleep. By
mid afternoon they were sailing winds again and had moved around behind
us. We dropped the main sail and made a few repairs and got on the move
again.

Is anyone from NZ reading this? If so then I'm trying to track a low
that is currently bothering your weather, but will also bother us if it
moves eastwards too quickly. Synoptic says that it will be just off the
coast of the South Island on Saturday, but I'd really like to know if
and when it moves across you. Easiest way to pick that is that the
winds will turn southerly in Christchurch with probably some rain. If
that happens any time before, say, mid day on Monday, can someone please
drop me an email?

At this stage I'm hoping we reach Raivavae around Anzac Day, 25th April.
Water is running short and the desalinator isn't working so any longer
than that and we'll be out of water. I do have a plan to fix the
desalinator but it requires calmer seas -- the gales from the other day
have abated but left a 4m rolling swell in its wake, beam on so it's
bouncing us around a bit.

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