With less than 100nm to go, Alex is trying to carefully adjust his speed in order to enter Foveaux Strait to coincide with favourable tides and diminished winds on Sunday.
Last night they reduced sail right down and slowly crept forward. Unfortunately, this resulted in a very uncomfortable night with the boat rolling a lot and waves slapping on the hull. This morning the waves were a bit higher, around 4m, but the roll was not quite so bad.
Regarding roll, I was looking at the Predictwind forecasts yesterday and downloaded the predicted roll. The different coloured lines are the different computer models used for forecasting, but in general it shows that last night would have been pretty awful (anything over 4 is considered uncomfortable)!
At least it should get better from here.
11am: Alex's perspective on today's conditions: "Early this morning we set off after stopping at 1am. Glorious sailing: wind mid 20's and higher, 4m following seas, blue sky, emerald/blue gray water, bright white crests, just a genoa, making 7+knts, 130 miles to go."
6pm: I just heard from Alex again. He is considering anchoring for the night behind Codfish Island, off the NW corner of Stewart Island, in order to wait for the favourable tide through Foveaux Strait and to arrive in Bluff in the afternoon.
In tomorrow’s blog I hope to report arrival in Bluff!
Today’s pictures are of Cheryl deploying the one of the last XBT probes.
