Day 222 Bumpy ride

Position @ 0730 is S22º45 X E175º00.
The sea continued to build throughout the night and by morning the waves were 6 to 10 feet and very disorganized. This means there was almost no discernable pattern to the waves. When the waves are organized in a regular pattern, the ride may be rough but it is predictable. Our current waves are not only rough but it is harder to walk or do anything in the galley when you cannot tell when the next shake will be.
The sky is very clear and the barometer is very high at 1020 hPa (hecto pascals – the unit of barometric pressure for a meteorologist). The sun is out but it is definitely getting colder. Every now and then, Southern Star plows into a wave and spray comes over the boat and into the cockpit. It is clear that the water is colder as well.
We ride in mild discomfort throughout the day due to the waves and we are only making about 3 to 5 knots to the southwest.
The 1700 radio net reports that the wind should shift to eastward by tomorrow mid-day and remain from that direction until sometime on Friday. This would allow us to make better headway southward. Our destination is Opua in the Bay of Islands, which is at 35º00 south and 173º16 west. Each degree of latitude (the 360 lines that go east-west) are approximately 67 nautical miles apart. You can estimate how far we have to go by subtracting our current latitude (approximately 23º) from 35º and multiplying by 67 miles (you should get about 800 miles). Historically, we have made about 120 miles a day (average of 5 knots) so you can estimate it will take us another six and a half days to reach our destination. One complication is that this would put us into the Bay of Islands at 7PM and we would not enter this unknown harbor and try to anchor at night so either we speed up and get there next Tuesday during the day or we slow down and arrive in the morning on Wednesday. Of course these estimates are all based on the assumption that there will be no interference from unfavorable weather.
I spend over an hour each day listening to the radio net and then taking the information, transferring it to a log book and to a line on the chart and trying to predict our future course with the help of the GPS. This gives me a greater appreciation for the task of the ancient navigators who sailed by the stars – when they could see them. Thank you for technology.