It wasn’t a very nice 24hrs for the crew of Rusalka. Yesterday afternoon they were punching into 2.5-3m seas, making slow progress SW into 20-25kt WNW winds. About 6pm NZ time, while having mushroom barley soup for dinner, they crossed the magical “halfway” mark of 162.05E (halfway between Nelson and Eden).
Soon they could see a bank of clouds off the port bow, lightening in the distance and the wind picked up. The wind swung around to the S in the night and Alex turned the boat to run with it, with heavy rain, gusts of 35+kts and short steep waves. In his words “What a wild ride!” It was an extremely uncomfortable ride and at 5:20am they hove to for 5 hours and had a rest.
This morning they set off again in 20-25kt SW with 3m S swell, heading NW again. Hopefully they will be able to turn SW again by tomorrow, otherwise they may have to head for a different port of entry.
All are very tired, but in good spirits and "chirpy".
Statistics:
24 hrs to midday, 10 April:
Distance traveled: 70nm
DMG 59nm
(this includes beating into 25-30kt under storm jib and 5hrs hove to)
