Lisa Blair is attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate Australia solo, non-stp and unassisted. Having left Sydney and sailed across the top end, down the Western Australian coast and across the Bight she is now heading north towards Tasmania, following the passing of a cold front. Here is her latest blog:
Well, it has definitely been a night of changing conditions as this trough passes over me and the high-pressure system catches up. Last night the conditions were not very nice with a consistent drizzly rain and easing winds. I was able to change to my No 1 jib at around 8 pm and I had the full mainsail up. With all the rain it was an almost completely black night on deck and I couldn't see anything around me except for more darkness which was a little eerie.
It likely didn't help that I binge watched The Walking Dead TV series. I am notoriously a scaredy cat when it comes to scary movies and I refuse to watch them normally as I freak myself out too much when I am home alone. My sister and I always argue about this when we are together as she and dad can't get enough of them. So don't ask me what I was thinking when I put on an episode of The Walking Dead but I guess I was bored and I didn't really have much left on my hard drive to watch so The Walking Dead it was.
Again don't ask me how it happened but I found myself trying to finish season one before nightfall and then I decided that I would just stay up and keep watching as I wasn't sure I would be able to get any sleep after that. So a TV binge started and it wasn't until 3am that I finished all of season 1 and 2 that I have with me. In the end, I needed to watch a light-hearted comedy afterwards just to get some sleep. It wasn't my best plan and I woke up feeling a bit tired but happy that I have no more Walking Dead to watch.
When I surfaced this morning it was still raining and at 10 am the winds finally shifted to the South and I was able to put in the gybe I had been waiting on. With that done and full sails up there has been very little to do. I had been grateful that I still had some winds which had been holding at 10-15 knots however about an hour ago it decided to stop altogether and the winds dropped out to 4 knots and swung wildly around to the east before coming back to the SW.
I went on deck to take a look and adjust all the sails and it was like the sky had been split in two. On one half were these grey clouds and misty rain and on the other clear blue sky. I was finally out the back of the trough that had been around all night and now I was getting overtaken by the light winds in the high.
As expected though by just giving it 30 minutes to settle the new winds have filled in and I am once again sailing in 13 knots and able to make some good ground which is fortunate as I was expecting that the winds would drop out for longer so I can only be happy now with sunshine to chase away the rain and wind to get me home.
