Routing Tecla in the Pacific

In past editions, we regularly made room for captain Jet Sluik’s logbook entries with the logger Tecla. This time, she is preparing for heavy weather.

27º08.6’S 125º17.2’W // course 100º // speed 5,7kn
Making east is pretty much what we have been doing today. With slack winds, to the point of lowering sails because they were just hanging around, we have been able to make our way east under engine easily. Not fast, but steady.
We used our hours of calm to prepare for the winds that are coming in a day and a half. We are stuck (by choice) in a high-pressure area. North of us, a steady easterly wind blows, the trade winds. To the south, very unstable weather lies, with the wind changing all the time. Only around 38ºS do we find steady westerly winds. We did not have time to go that far south, so we chose the high-pressure area with light winds for now.

This also has to do with the low-pressure area behind us. A small disturbance in the high-pressure area is developing into a low that is forecast to deepen to 975 hPa. It’s winter here, let’s not forget. But what is slightly off for this low is how high in latitude it will pass by. It is developing at 24ºS, which is about 15º higher than regular low-pressure areas. The general feeling is that it has to do with El Niño – but what can we say.

The intensity of the low-pressure area is not forecast to be at its height when it passes us by. The predictions have changed daily. Keeping an eye on the weather is always part of the watch, but now we have weather forecasts on two screens, with split screens – comparing the predictions in the GFS model and ECMWF model. In Windy, GRIP and LuckGrib. Well, what else can we do on a Sunday like today, when we motor our way over a calm South Pacific Ocean? So our Sunday was spent getting the crew familiarised with the storm forestaysail, the storm jib and the safety lines. Just in case. Good exercise anyway, hugging the forestaysail.

I made an extra meal already, so we don’t have to worry about that either. Now we just hope that we don’t get stuck in the rain for too long.

27º45.9’S 122º44.1’W // course 103º // speed 5.8 kn
The past daylight hours we have prepared for what is going to come during the next daylight hours. Strong winds are coming our way, and so we prepared a second reef in the mizzen, put up the safety lines and overall got the ship ready for a windy few days. It looks like the strong winds will start in about 6 hours and last for about 15 hours, so hopefully by tomorrow we will have had the worst of it.

Dorus is just at the helm, as I take the two night watches downstairs in the aft cabin to look at the forecast. I want everybody to be aware of the weather ahead, so we don’t make any mistakes. Dorus steers us close-hauled into a fickle wind, between 17 and 23 knots, and 20º shifts in the wind seem to be normal tonight. I go through the hours in our GRIB file and show Leo, Bruce, Bob and Chris the forecast and the difference from yesterday. The low is still situated fairly high, at 25ºS, and will deepen quicker than expected yesterday. And so, we see in our weather report a clear need to stay as far north as possible and not lose too many miles to the south.

The gentlemen are quiet as we go through the projection of the weather. They were quiet on watch as well.

As we were reefing, I tried to emphasise the need to use the high side (the windward side) of the ship. Do not pass underneath the boom in weather like this while reefing. Don’t sit on the leeward side. Keep your feet on the red deck and work together!

By now the fridge is filled with lasagna, rice and curry for if we don’t want to cook. The breadbox is full. The yoghurt replenished and all surfaces cleaned and ready.

All is well on board,

Jet

Source text and picture: Tecla

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