7:38.10N 121:23.71W

Farr Gone Blog
Stuart Cannon
Sat 2 Apr 2011 21:31
Big excitement for day 9 at sea. Light and variable winds, lumpy seas and occasional rain. If you stay to the north west of the storms its ok. Over the other side of the equator its the south east. Last night I got snuck up on and it was quite vigorous. No the excitement today is the visit of a fishing boat. Scary as hell as this chinese and extremely rusty jalopy of a fishing boat altered course and appeared to be on collision. Naturally the mind wanders to thoughts of piracy on the high seas. Fortunately all they wanted was to say hello to break the monotony of their voyage and it provided a diversion for me as well.
Not really big excitement is it? Ok well its not all that exciting when the boat rock and rolls in a dead sea but we make steady progress. Today is steak night on Farr Gone. Might even come with a side order of mash potato. Depends on the state of the water, that one. Handling boiling water in a lumpy sea is frought with dangers.
The boat has consumed surprisingly little fuel if the fuel gauge is correct. I'm concerned that its the same kind of gauge you get in Toyotas, I had a Hi Ace with one, that takes for ever to use the first half of the tank and then all of a sudden the tank is empty. Even so it seems like there is adequate fuel on board especially if the sailing continues right across the ITCZ
Details 7:38.10N 121:23.79W bearing 217 magnetic. The choice of bearing is being influenced more by the variable direction of the wind than anything else at present. The 71 miles of the last 24 hours are the slowest yet but thats the itcz for you. Yesterday was 157 and the day before (with correction for dogleg, but my math could be wrong) 183. The rest are all around 130 to 150.