Thursday 11 February 2016

St Helena Inbound Day 10

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 20 43S 001 44E and saillng at 6 knots on a course of 280M. The wind is SE at 14-16 knots with a 1m sea and 1m SW swell.  We are sailing under full main and single-furled yankee.  Mostly sunny sky.  Our day's run was 137nm and we have 510nm to go.

Yesterday the Ocean Cruising Club announced its 2015 prize recipients.  A few days ago the OCC informed me I was to be awarded the Water Music trophy.  A very nice surprise!  The award is for my creation of a publicly-accessible library of GoogleEarth imagery KAP charts.  These charts are an aid to marine navigation, particularly in the less well charts parts of the world.  The library is described in the post GoogleEarth KAP library for OpenCPN and SEAiq on this blog.

Chasing the sunset yesterday

Yesterday afternoon we had a great sail although under mostly "anticyclonic gloom" clouds.  The wind was 10-15 knots which was enough to keep us moving along.  Overnight the wind picked up to 12-18 knots and we made good progress, missing several rain showers which passed close by.  This morning there's only patchy cloud and the wind is 14-16 knots from the SE - champagne sailing!

This morning I conducted the South Atlantic Crosser's HF net.  Everyone is making good progress and enjoying the conditions.  There are several boats with DSC-equipped HF radios and we are experimenting with Position Reports prior to the net.  I wonder if this is the first such use of DSC routine calling on a cruising net?

A Famous LP

Treatment of the LP recordings I mentioned yesterday is proceeding apace.  One of the LPs is the well-known Telarc recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  It came with a warning to turn up the weight on the turntable's stylus to avoid it jumping out of the track when the cannons went off.  Happily I recorded the LP to MP3 on my father's marvellous B&O turntable.  It's a great recording and the cannons are spectacular.

Trust all's well where you are.

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