[password] 5Fku_7$H
[position]32 05.9S, 173 39.1E
[weather]Wind NNW 11-16, Bar 1013.0, Sky 90% altostratus, Sea N 1m short period
[speed]6 knots
[heading]171 T
[status]Broad reaching on starboard tack.
We're sailing under a double reefed main and yankee (80% working jib) poled to leeward. This is my favorite downwind sail configuration if there's any wind at all. It's fast, stable, and quiet. No slatting of main or collapsing and popping of the jib. It's also quite resilient, handling various wave and wind combinations well. It's rolly with the short period 1m seas, but we're running with them and there is enough wind so that we're not rolling over center. Rolling back and forth on one side is fine. Rolling back and forth over center (straight up) is not so fine. We're now within 184 nm of the entrance to Bay of Islands. ETA is mid-Wednesday, that is middle of the day tomorrow. By later today the gale west of Northland and moving over Northland should begin to ease. A SW swell of up to 3.5m is forecast by GFS to reach us sometime this morning and then abate later today. There is not a whole lot of advantage to slowing down and waiting for those waves would reach our current position anyway. And then the 3+m waves return again beginning Wednesday afternoon through Friday. By tomorrow morning we should be in the lee of North Cape. Wave forecast from GFS grib. An interesting phenomenon that we will test in real life is whether the 30+ knot gale with its northerly quadrant winds will dampen the 3+ meter waves from the south Tasman and Antarctic. Wind creates waves, it should dampen them. I wonder what Willard Bascom would have to say?
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