Day 9...GPS's to the microwave...we've got fireworks

Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Thu 6 Dec 2012 17:35

20:22.6N 45:10.1W  Last night was interesting…high winds, high heel, fast speed, and squalls everywhere…THEN the lightening came, and it was all around us for quite some time.  Taking a light lightning strike could knock out all of our electronics…we have been through this before on our previous boat…such a strike can affect all electronics, even if not plugged in… so we put GPS’s in the microwave which functions to electrically insulate them (electrical engineers would call this a “Faraday Box”), and assure that if all else is lost, we end up with a working GPS to continue navigating…but that too past without incident!  We have finished day 9 with an average 209 miles per day, 1690 total….but early this morning, when the winds went to “0” and were very unstable, we turned on our engine and sailed with motor assist in order to keep a reasonable speed toward St. Lucia.  We consider having completed 8 ½ days under sail only, making 200+ miles each day, to be a bragging rights accomplishment!  We are unanimous on board that with our object of a SAFE and FUN crossing being met, we do not need to be purists and only sail when the winds go light, as long as we have plenty of fuel, and we do.  So we will motor off and on over the next 24 hours, after which we expect winds to come back strong again.  From the pictures below, you can see that we had all sails up….genoa, staysail, and main…and you can see the heel by how the gimbled stove was rolling to stay level when the boat heeled (and how the captain heels in the nav station!).  Cap was going to make a filet dinner, but it got cancelled and replaced with pasta in a bowl when the wind and squalls kicked up.  Further, there is a sunrise picture (actual much more spectacular than the photo), and shot of Paul pulling in our first fish….or so we thought….10 minutes later he lost the line and lure…”the big one got away”!  ATLANTIC HISTORY….so according to Simon Winchester and his research, here are the facts on some of the early guys…who really has claim for America’s discovery….confirmed in 1987 by a number of experts, we now know that Lief Ericson (son of Eric the Red) ventured west to what is now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland, and setup camp in 1001 A.D., and may have only remained until 1008 A.D.  A key consideration is that the Vikings are viewed as having advanced to the west out of “curiosity” and not for trade, or crops, or domination reasons!  At the same time that the Vikings were developing their boat skills at the end of the B.C. period, the Irish developed functional boating skills…and, although I am biased to favour the Irish and their accomplishments, there is apparently no evidence that they ventured as far west as the Vikings…they stayed “home”!  And then comes Columbus in 1492, lands in what is now part of the Bahamas, explores the Caribbean Islands, makes 4 voyages in total in and around the same area (also Venezuela at one point), is driven for trade reasons to find a route to Asia, and is convinced that where he has landed is Japan and parts of Asia…he died with that belief.  And  finally, came Amerigo Vespucci, a colourful Italian who wrote prolifically about his ventures sailing around, now South America, and published a book in 1503, claiming to have “discovered” a new continent, a fourth continent, added to Europe, Asia, and Africa…German mapmakers, based on this, penned a derivation in the feminine form of his first name to name the continent “America” .  So …. The Vikings did not “discover” anything, they just sailed across a portion of the Atlantic for curiosity, Columbus did not “discover” anything since he thought he had just found a new route to Asia,  but, Amerigo Vespuci truly “discovered” and realized that there was a fourth new continent, and so, perhaps rightly, it bares his name….yet none of us will take anything away from the daring adventures of Columbus without which nothing further may have happened for quite some time….and, finally, my beloved fellow  Irish can claim many good things, but not the discovery of the New World  (I might add that their discovery of Guiness makes up for the earlier failure in my book).  Finally, a globe, published in 1515 by Mercator, for the first time, penned the separate names to the two halves of the one continent..”North America” and “South America” ….and there you have it!!  Mike

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