4. A prediction is a prediction..

Telefonica Black
Lance Shepherd
Wed 22 Jan 2020 09:01
19:39.485N 023:34.013W - Total Gybes: 4 - Distance to go: 2240 nm
Max. Speed: 19.3 - Speed winner of the Day: Jose
 
 
Today was an exceptionally nice day. We have been flying the Asymmetric all day and have been doing great speeds. This made us introduce a little speed competition. The person registering the highest speed (on course) onto the log is named 'speed winner of the day'.
Coincidently, today's winner is the same person I was planning to spotlight in this blog: Jose.
 
Jose is from Peru and started travelling the world about 1,5 years ago. He just finished university when he decided he wanted to broaden his horizon. It is amazing how much he did: Europe, Egypt, Asia and Russia to name a few and at some point he ended up in Las Palmas where he joined us on Telefonica Black. He had never set foot on a sailing boat before and on my question why he came on this trip he came with this amazing story:
 
Growing up Jose believed that Christopher Columbus was a guy who mainly took a lot from Peru, the country he grew up in. Lots of natural resources got taken by foreign countries because one mister Columbus decided to conquer the seas and explore new countries. Jose felt that some of the poverty in Peru leads all the way back to that time and he therefore (also) did not have any warm feelings towards Spain.
 
In Las Palmas however Jose went to the Christopher Columbus museum and there he learnt more about his travels. 'In a way I started to respect the guy because he was able to prove the earth was not flat and he did so without any of the modern navigation resources we have now' he says.
'and somewhere in the back of my mind I have always wanted to cross an ocean but I never thought it possible without any sailing experience. I am on my way back to Peru and I cannot think of a better way than stepping into Christopher Columbus' footsteps to finalize my journey around the world.'
 
Unfortunately we could not dwell on Jose his story too long because we were put to work as Lance and Claire decided we needed to gybe. The third in 4 days and like yesterday, again at around 1700. Not much later the wind picked up till about 25 knots, we changed from the A7 (Asymmetric) to the J4 (jib). The prediction was that the pressure would not decrease too much during the course of the night. At 2200 we did the second gybe of the day, back to port tack, lining us up to pass Cape Verde on the West side.
 
Right now it is 0510 and tonight has been a great example on how a prediction is a prediction until it comes true. Theoretically we lined up perfectly to pass Cape Verde but with the pressure dropping and a variable wind direction it has proven impossible to stay on the preferred heading. So we might have to do another 2 gybes to make sure we keep clear of Santo Antao. But again, this is also just a prediction and it makes me think of a saying we have in Dutch that translates to 'nothing is as variable as the wind'..
 
Have a great day!
 
Angela