Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends!!
3am We were making very little headway W against NW wind of 16kt, so tacked around ... but frustrating... no gain - actually went over our previous track! So just tacked back around again a short while ago.
6.30am Fishing boat has gone that was not far away overnight. Grey overcast in early daylight, seas still quite big and close but generally feels rather calmer. With slight wind shift more to N, we've made better course towards the W and less to SW - now making 257T so will stay on this tack and see how we go. Got lots of rest over y'day and last night - feeling good now. Time for breakfast and making radio contacts. Feeling decidedly chilly at 19C after very damp air last night and heavy dew on deck overnight..
10am Let out another reef to give better boat speed - not actually making much difference but must be better since wind is slowly lessening - now up and down around16 knots from NW.
I feel happier now I'm making a better course and things are calmer... but still need to tidy up down below from results of washing machine action over Wed into Thursday...!
..................
Wind around 15 kt this afternoon, SOG ~4-4.5 kt, but course good - seeing 270T finally. Wind slowly dying down - I hope not too much!
Wind generator was putting in amps that solar panels were not in murky grey light of this morning, but it got brighter later so solar doing better even though sun still hidden.
....................
Near evening. wind picked up to around 20kt and has often veered more to NNW - so our course has been maintained at 270 T or better.
For some reason, my plotter alarm did not sound to alert me to imminent Pacific Seafarers' Net - so missed it completely. About to investigate - maybe sound has been turned off somehow? Hope it's fixable!
.... Well, I keep setting it in the usual way and it's consistently failing to respond - that's a real nuisance, it's been so good and reliably loud up to now that I've used it a lot. Set to 0800z, it went off at 1140z but set to 0804 did not go off at 1144z... "Go figure..."