Day 4 – Autopilot back on

We spent the day hand steering in similar conditions to last reported. As the evening set in the seas and wind calmed a little so during my 8pm to 11m shift I cautiously engaged the autopilot. I checked it after half an hour of use and at the end of my shift and there were no further concerns in terms of integrity of the lashing. There is a couple of cm of give in the lash up which results in some sluggishness with the autopilot. This is in turn making it hard to hold the sailing line which is affecting performance a little.
The winds have eased and have shifted round against us a little meaning we have to sail closer to the wind. At this angle our old technique of lashing the wheel and making micro occasional adjustments is no longer working so it’s either the autopilot or full hand steering. We also have a knot of counter current, also reported by the boats ahead of us. All this adds up to us averaging now about 5 knots and not quite in the right direction. Fortunately the high we were watching so closely before we left is indeed shifting off and offering us easterlies and north-easterlies as we approach New Zealand so we can make up our drift west from the rhumb line. If we continue at this pace our ETA is now Friday morning.

A couple of milestones were passed yesterday. During Helen’s shift we passed over the 180 East West meridian. No one was paying much attention to this and we only realized after the event. We also passed the half way mark. It’s nice to know we have more sea behind us than ahead.

I’ve checked the lashing again this morning and it appears sound. I put one last piece of line on using my favourite knot, the truckers hitch, to try and reduced some of the latency. I don’t think it’s made a lot of difference but it may reduce stress on the system and help it all hold together.

I continue to download wind forecasts every 6 hours (except at midnight). At 6am I am still accessing a Los Angeles station over 5,000nm away and still getting good performance. That’s kind of cool I think. I seem to have the station all to myself at that time. With the fleet all over this side of the Pacific perhaps no-one else is thinking of using it. I’m not telling as my propagation window is only about an hour and I’m not willing to share (unless you’re reading this of course).