At anchor off Boyd Town, Twofold Bay
Wind: SW F6 strong breeze
Sea: slight Swell: negligible
Weather: sunny, cool

We enjoyed a peaceful night at anchor off Boyd Town; the cold front, with associated rain and strong winds, arriving around mid-forenoon. Since then the rain has passed and we now have clear blue skies though the wind has increased, gusting up to 30 knots but for the most part averaging around 20 knots. We are anchored in a good position with a only short fetch of around 200 meters to the beach and therefore only small wavelets are reaching Sylph. Sylph dances about her anchor cable a little, but otherwise it is pretty comfortable.

I have spent this forenoon working on the new Dickinson heater, trying to get it to operate more reliably in these windy conditions. To that end I have wired in the draft assist fan which helps control the combustion of the fuel, and perhaps more importantly I have read the instruction manual. The problem in windy conditions is that in the gusts the pressure inside the boat can become less than the pressure outside due to the wind sucking air out of the cabin. This in turn causes the gases from the heater to be sucked down the chimney, tending to snuff out the flame and causing a lot of smoke - not at all pleasant and not particularly good for one's health. Of course one wants to close the boat up to keep the warmth in but in fact you have to open the boat up slightly to create a positive air flow to ensure the chimney draws well. To that end I have cracked the fore hatch open and turned the draft assist fan to a low setting, and for the most part the heater is now coping with the windy conditions quite well, which makes for a nice warm cosy cabin down below, especially with the sound of the wind howling outside.

I am also pleased to say that the Windows 10 laptop appears to have come good and that the tablet's bluetooth keyboard, after a bit of a fresh water wash and a good drying out in the sun, has returned to delivering an unencrypted type set. So a couple of wins.

The wind is forecast to ease tonight and to be much lighter come tomorrow. The question will be whether the seas have abated sufficiently for the light winds to be able to keep Sylph moving. If not then we will probably be better off waiting another day to allow the sea and swell to flatten out. I will assess the situation tomorrow morning.

All is well.