Thursday, May 30, 2013

Day 3 - Preparing for gales

It has been a day of light winds and flapping sails. We motored for much of the morning when the wind vanished completely. The boat got a nice clean-off in a couple of showers and the rainbows framed by black squall clouds were quite beautiful. Until a half hour ago we had been sailing under full main and jib - something we do surprisingly rarely in the open ocean where there is often more wind than we need. The boats ahead of us are reporting much more wind, so we will be reefing down soon, no doubt.

Rani was a bit cranky when I woke up this morning after a chilly watch, but cheered herself up by making parathas (stuffed flat breads) taking advantage of the flat conditions. Later we prepared for a gale that is forecast to arrive tomorrow by rigging our jack lines and retrieving our personal harnesses from the lockers. We also took out the life raft from its locker under the V-berth and Rani made up a 'ditch bag' full of survival gear in case we have to leave in a hurry. We hope to see no more than 20-30 knot as we should be on the edge of the low, but it is too early to tell for sure.

Our position today at 3pm was 32 54S 175 12E. We sailed/motored 90 nautical miles in the previous 24 hours and of those 85 were towards our way-point off Astolabe Reef.

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