Hello from the southern hemisphere - 3:46.12S 132:28.17W
Moondance
Alex Belmont
Sun 3 Jun 2012 03:03
the astral world. We've been on this little boat for a while now, but my
mind has not wondered as far as different dimensions or realms. But I
digress... Last Wednesday, May 30th, we sailed across the equator. Always a
nice milestone in a passage. Rose and I split a warm Pacifico, sharing a
good measure with Neptune to help ensure safe passage.
Whether our toast to Neptune pleased him or we just got lucky, I am not
sure, but we have had some pretty nice breeze the past few days. Force 4
from the WSW. We've been beam reaching along at a good clip, making some
pretty good daily runs. It has been a bit rolly with this sea on the beam,
but I'm not about to complain about that. All-in-all, very nice sailing.
We caught a tiny little bonito today. First fish we've managed to land so
far. We had hooked a few mahi, but they have all been great big things that
just snap your line. This bonito was very small, but provided a nice little
snack. After hauling it in, the line was so tangled that I gave up on it
after a while and just cut it and salvaged the good bits by tying them
together with double-fishermans. What a pain. Still plenty of line left on
the reel though.
Just over 500 miles left to go. Feels like we're getting close now. It's
been 33 days at sea so far, and though I'm looking forward to making land,
I'm not particularly anxious or rushed to get there. I'm actually looking
forward to a few more days of mellow sailing before I need to start thinking
about rocks and timing a landfall so as to not arrive in the dark. Actually
the Marquesas are a pretty easy approach, since they aren't old enough to
have fringing coral reefs. You can pretty much see where the rocks are as
they rise steeply out of the water. Still rocks tend to make me nervous, so
it's nice to get a few more relaxing days of sailing before the final
approach is too much on my mind.
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Salut a tous! Oui, nous sommes toujours vivants... Et saufs! Comme vous avez
pu lire, on a enfin croiser l'equateur! J'y ai lancee ma bouteille a la mer
avec quelques oeuvres d'art, ainsi que notre direction latitude 29 et
longitude 0. De plus, j'y ai ajoutee quelques petits brillants (glitters for
you crazy people!) et renommee le cepage! C'etait une bouteille pas cher-pas
cher, Diavolo, et je l'ai baptise: Save Our Souls. Mwahahahaha! Sur ce, au
contraire du cher capitaine qui envisage les quelques jours de voile avant
de mettre pied sur terre, j'ai des fourmis aux cul! Je crois que ca sera la
pleine lune lorsqu'on arrivera, alors souhaitez nous que les tribues
canibales des iles aient cesser leurs ceremonies... Gulp. J'ai une demande
en echange de n'importe quoi.... et c'est du BEURRE! Ahhh... Les biscuits,
les sautes, le poisson frit... Tout sera meilleur avec du beurre! Et un bon
verre de lait? Hmiam. Parlant de poisson, on a pechez notre premier petit
poisson aujourd'hui. Il fesait mauvais temps (quelques petites goutes du
ciel) avec des grosses vagues et difficile de trouver le comfort quand on a
entendu les "criiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkkkkkkkk" du rile... Aaaa fish! Je l'ai
frit a la maniere de momere, (sans le beurre) bien roule dans des miettes de
craquelins! En ce moment meme, les nuages sont enormes, certains roses,
d'autres mauves, on dirait de la barbe a papa! Je commence a avoir la dent
sucree, c'est le temps qu'on arrive je crois. Il fait toujours dans les
environs de 30 degres celicius a l'ombre et probablement 1000 au soleil!
Allez hop, c'est a mon tour de jeter un coup d'oeil aux alentours... Nous
avons gardes l'heure du mexique, donc il est 8:45 et le soleil brille encore
avec la lune deja bien haute en contraste, c'est magnifique... Bonne nuit,
bonjour, bonne semaine et bisous du SUD!
***
Hello everyone, just a little note assuring our well being ;) Finally passed
the equator, threw my message in a bottle youpy! In it, if someone finds it,
they will discover a few pieces of art (one from me and another from SLY) as
well as our coordinates and some glitters! The wine was called Diavolo so I
renamed it: Save Our Souls... Mwahahahaha! Now, captain Alex isn't too
anxious to make it to the islands, but on the other hand, I have monster
ants in my pants! I would love to go for a jog and tire myself to a good 8
hours sleep (in a row). I also am beginning to have monster cravings for
sugar, fresh produce and butter. Imagine the fried veggies and the fish and
how much better the cookies would be? Hmmm... Miam. As Alex has previously
mentioned, we caught our first fish today! It was a puny little thing but it
served as a delicious snack. Would like to get some more now! Big enough to
feed ourselves for the next 2 days, would avoid having to cook so much
(ceviche-fried-empanizada...). Weather is nice, except for the squall-walls,
which actually bring fish so aren't so bad, we've been appreciating a nice
30 degrees Celsius in the shade and probably a 1000 in the sun! Nice big
puffy clouds for todays sunset which is competing with the shiny almost full
moon on the other side, very pretty! Enough said... Maybe our next entry
will be from the islands! Talk to you soon! Hugs and kisses from the south.
Audray-Rose