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Date: 18 Aug 2010 02:35:02
Title: Nuie to Tonga - (68)
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Position
 
The forecast was for 10 to 15 knots of wind from the East to South East. It is 8-10 knots and we are Motor sailing. Just another 2 knots and I could put up the spinnaker. Anyway, the weather is lovely. It is warm sunny and calm.
so I am not complaining.
No wind - oh, sometimes life really is tough
Here we are, in the middle of hundreds of thousands of square miles and last night we saw two fishing vessels and two there yachts, all within a 3 mile radius. It's busy out here!
 
Today is a momentous day as tonight, we will cross the International Dateline. From one minute to the next it will go from being Monday 16th August to Wednesday 18th August and I will have aged 24 hours in one minute!  Maybe I should keep circumnavigating the other way round and rediscover my youth! I know we do this on aeroplanes all the time but there is something different and special about doing it on a yacht; a bit like crossing the equator for the first time I suppose, though no ceremony this time.
 
So that Tonga can be to the west , on the same day as NZ, Australia etc. the vertical international dateline of 180 degrees from the Greenwich or Prime meridian makes an artificial kink to the east to encompass the country. Our next significant milestone will be when we truly cross from West to East, from longitude 179.59W to 179.59E. That will happen when we approach Fiji but it will not be for another few weeks still.
 
No FISH!
 
 
 
 
   
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