| Date: | March 8, 2014, 12:53 p.m. |
| Position: | 46 36.00 S, 168 20.00 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
Made it. Docked at fisherman's wharf berth A11 in Bluff. Cleared customs in about 30 minutes and then headed straight down to the Eagle hotel for a pint of Speights and a famous toastie sandwich. Never tasted better. Got an early nights sleep.
| Date: | March 7, 2014, 12:46 p.m. |
| Position: | 46 12.00 S, 165 17.00 E |
Quite a frustrating day. The wind swung south enough for us to start sailing at about 6 knots on a close reach before dying off to nothing. We started motor-sailing around lunchtime. We pulled in all our sail about 1 hour ago when conditions glassed off completely. From the look of the forecast we may have to motor the rest of the way to Bluff although we may be able to sail on a 15 knot westerly for part of tomorrow. We are trying to keep up a 6 knot average this last day so that we arrive in Bluff tomorrow evening.
| Date: | March 6, 2014, 8:36 a.m. |
| Position: | 45 47.00 S, 162 3.00 E |
The south-easterly has not eased up all day. We have been sailing to windward with the staysail and mizzen only with a COG of around 90T at about 3 knots. We will start to motor-sail the last 200 miles to windward if the wind doesn't swing to the south/SW tomorrow morning. Progress is frustratingly slow to windward but otherwise everything is well on board.
| Date: | March 5, 2014, 6:27 p.m. |
| Position: | 45 51.00 S, 160 46.00 E |
Lots of rain tonight so this might be delayed getting sent. Sailed under full headsail and mizzen only throughout the day averaging around 6 knots in a NE breeze of 10-15kts. The trough just passed over us about 1 hour ago with lots of rain and a 180-degree wind shift. Fortunately wind is a pleasant 20-knots or so as the trough weakened over the past few days. The rain is torrential though and makes it feel a lot worse than it really is. We tried to make as much south as feasible while we had the northerlies, this turned out for the better as the southerly has a lot more east in it than expected. Even so we are not quite laying Point Puysegur at the moment. We are now sailing quite close to the wind with a double-reefed headsail and mizzen only doing about 5.5kts. Hopefully this will shift to the south as the trough passes over and we'll be reaching toward Point Puysegur in 15kts or so.
| Date: | March 4, 2014, 2:08 p.m. |
| Position: | 44 38.00 S, 157 19.00 E |
Motored for the past 30 hours in glassy conditions with less than 5 knots of wind. We are now just over half way between Tasmania and the South Island with 400nm to Puysegur Point. Looking forward to the forecast northerly winds to get some sail up. Just now winds have started from the north at 10 knots. Forecasts indicate that the front is weakening winds around the front should be moderated.
| Date: | March 3, 2014, 12:44 p.m. |
| Position: | 43 57.00 S, 154 11.00 E |
Midnight. Motoring ~110T at ~5kts in less than 5kts of wind. Sailed most of the day with full main, headsail and mizzen in 10-15kts of wind. I have been surprised at how variable the wind has been as there were constant squalls which come through every 30 minutes or so with double the wind speed, making sail selection difficult. At least you could see the clouds bringing the squalls and patches of light drizzle all around you. Around sunset the wind dropped to nothing and we had to start motoring. The sail flogged too much as we rolled along in the swell so we could not even motor-sail. The rolling motion without the sails is quite uncomfortable but at least the sail isn't flogging itself to death and making a racket. Right now the rolling seems to be subsiding and I can only imagine the sea and swell is dropping to become almost glassy. I can't see anything due to the cloud cover making everything pitch black. If this continues until morning it will be quite strange to wake up to see the southern ocean completely becalmed. Made contact with Meri at Bluff Fishermans Radio today on 4417 at 2030 NZLT. Very nice to speak to someone so cheerful and positive. Still getting Hobart Coast Radio on 4146 at 0745 and 1903 AEDT.
| Date: | March 2, 2014, 9:23 a.m. |
| Position: | 43 26.00 S, 151 27.00 E |
Sunset. Heading ~90T on a slightly broad reach in 10-15kts with gusts to 20kts. Still on the same rig, mizzen and single reef in the headsail and doing around 5.5kts. Have not touched the rig or adjusted hydrovane for the past 24 hours. Will let out full jib and possibly some mainsail if it drops further. Bigger swell came through today for a few hours as forecast, however it was not noticeable unless you looked hard for it because the wavelength was enormous. The seas however are now slightly larger causing us to bob along a bit. We are getting Hobart Coast Radio at 0745 and 1903 AEDT on 4146. Received Meri at Bluff Fishermans Radio this morning and evening (0715 and 2030 NZLT) on 4417, they could only barely receive us however, will try again tomorrow night. Lovely group of people there with what seems to be a few cruisers and a lot more fishermen on the sked list. All very friendly and cheerful. All the more motivation to get there soon!
| Date: | March 1, 2014, 12:59 p.m. |
| Position: | 43 18.00 S, 148 25.00 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
Midnight at the moment heading ~105T on a slightly broad reach in 15-= 20kts. Mizzen and single reef in the headsail and doing around 6.5kts. We decided to get into this cruising thing and traded off a knot or so of speed for a more comfortable ride. Hydrovane is set so we are cruising silently and only using around 4amps... 97p at the moment! Motion can only be described as extremely comfortable. For long periods the boat settles and you couldn't tell if we were moving or not. Like being at a slightly rolly anchorage. This is probably the best sailing we've had so far.
| Date: | Feb. 27, 2014, 9:17 p.m. |
| Position: | 43 8.44 S, 147 51.52 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
Had to pull in to Port Arthur after damaging the staysail in Sorm Bay.
| Date: | Feb. 24, 2014, 12:09 p.m. |
A big day of just doing admin and paperwork to get insurance sorted out for our trip across the Tasman. Not very fun at all. At least we only have to do this once a year!
Had Ian and Desley from Que Barbara on board for dinner. Nice night with crispy skin salmon... yum!
| Date: | Feb. 24, 2014, 2:45 a.m. |
Made a few more updates to the website www.svlogbook.com to fix formatting issues for posts from email/sailmail. Now all linebreaks are removed and only double-linebreaks will render as a new paragraph.
The website is coming along nicely now. Just have to hook up position reports to google maps and it will be quite a useful tool for logging position reports.
| Date: | Feb. 24, 2014, 1:59 a.m. |
After delaying our departure on Saturday for Monday morning. Got up to check the weather this morning and the frontal system we were expecting to pass through this Wednesday had intensified in forecast. Recommendation is to sit it out and wait for this frontal system to pass over. Next possible window for departure is Thursday afternoon. Welcome to cruising in the Southern Ocean... the weather is volatile and patience is everything.
| Date: | Feb. 19, 2014, 9:02 p.m. |
Everything is still on for a Saturday morning departure. Only have to pick up aluminium pieces; rebuild the spinnaker pole; get our dinghy back; try out the new outboard engine; clean up the boat and stow everything away... then we should be right to go.
| Date: | Feb. 18, 2014, 9:16 p.m. |
Studying HF propagation charts. Looks like we will only be able to contact Coast Radio Hobart in early morning and evening skeds on 6MHz. May be able to get sailmail contact throughout the day on 14MHz and higher.
| Date: | Feb. 18, 2014, 1:08 p.m. |
Updated the website ( www.svlogbook.com/Tuuletar ) so we can post log entries and status directly to facebook via sailmail (HF radio). We'll use this to post position and status reports during our voyage to New Zealand. Watch this space!
| Date: | Feb. 18, 2014, 5:20 a.m. |
Apologies for the number of posts today. I'm testing out the ability to post to facebook via email so that we can give regular position reports while crossing the Tasman.
| Date: | Feb. 18, 2014, 4:59 a.m. |
| Position: | 42 52.84 S, 147 19.50 E |
Just got an email from Bob McDavitt. Looks like a weather window will open up this Saturday for the big sail across the southern Tasman to NZ. Fingers crossed.