1930hrs 23 Nov 2005 UTC 44’59”S 089’59”E Ref 578
for the last few days we have been running the line between the tight low pressure systems to the south and the ridging high to the north west and getting some loverly westerlies. the wind has swung to the sw and dropped to about 20 kts, so it seems the high is taking over. we have the #2 and the main up and we’re squeezing south to see whether we can pick up a bit more wind. i am now getting good clear weather faxes from the oz bom and so we can see what’s behind us and we can wiggle around a bit to try to keep the pressure on. we are a couple of miles short of 90 e – six hours ahead of gmt – and western australia is now a biggish chunk in the corner of the gps screen. the water t is 8.8 degrees. ssailmail via firefly is getting better and we’re still very much in the game. wooohooo.
for those of you that use them or intend to, you may not know that watermakers slow right down once the t gets below 10 degrees. worth remembering when you are calculating power and water needs. ours now gives about 2.5 ltrs/hour instead of the 4.5 in warmer water. this is a bit of a problem as we are so short of power – we run the watermaker whenever the engine is running and whenever the solar panel is getting a bit of sun and we seem to be holding our reserve. we need about 15 more days of watermaker and we can then start using the reserve.