You can't really think more that an hour or so ahead out here. We've been headed by about 40 degrees so nowhere near laying Garelof any more. In the sea state, the best we can hope for is around 60 degrees off the wind, so a tack doesn't help. The sea is abating and in a couple of hours (there I go again) we will perhaps swap the main for the trisail and tack north again. We're about half way across the pass, still south of my original waypoint put there a week or so ago. But it's progress.
2 hours and a sleep later - engine going - lots of revs and no speed - hells bells and buckets of blood - kelp! Absolutely something I wanted to avoid. Big thump and something gave and we're now getting 3.5 kts through the water, 2.5 OTG on 030 towards the top of Garelof. Use the position in the header for this bit. There may well be more. That would mean about 11 hours to Garelof - this little vice doesn't want to let us go! Will not have enough diesel to risk all the way to Dutch unless the wind frees so looks like Adak, if we ever get out of here!
Someone tried to ring us on the satphone - if you do try please understand that we can't get to the phone quickly and it will ring out and go to some strange message (at your end) before we do. Ignore the message, hang up and ring again, repeat until someone answers. Can't begin to describe how difficult it is to manage the satphone in these conditions and we have to keep it all dry.
For those of you that don't know the boat, Berri is effectively an open ended tube - the open end sheltered but not covered or in any way insulated, so it's cold and damp inside and we have to be exceptionally careful with anything electronic.
Faint change in the blackness indicates the sun must be coming up somewhere on the planet but not here - last night was the coldest, blackest, dampest and most dismold that I can remember.
Speed has bleeped - will send these and pull in your gems - woohoo!
