Circumnavigator?
Fleck
Mon 8 Apr 2013 11:55
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Date Monday April 8th, noon
Position 16:03.9S 4:50.57W
There are 50 miles to the anchorage on St Helena,
but not enough daylight hours to get there today, and I will probably stand off
tonight, rather than risk problems in the dark: it was pitch black last night
again. I am plodding along in 7kts of breeze: which is more than we have had
since this time yesterday, and I can get the headsails filled without too much
flap, which is good for them, and comfortable for me.
At 07.00 this morning we passed 4:38.25W which is
the longditude of Albert Quay, where this voyage commenced in 2006.
So am I a circumnavigator? Conventially the term is used
when you get back to where you started, and indeed that is the plan,
but hey, one step at a time! At sea Fleck is a 'dry' boat, so with my
morning cuppa I reflected upon my departure all those years ago, trying not
to allow more recent events to colour/cloud those moments. These private
thoughts are beyond the remit of this blog, but I do recall how chaotic the
final loading of the boat had been, and that I set off down channel, in thick
fog, with the cabin knee deep in 'essential' gear, most of which turned out
to be worthless, and some of which cluttered the cabin sole for
months. It was not until we got to Portugal that I stopped looking for the
sewing machine! The inadvertent decision to leave it at home has been a mixed
blessing. Frankley there would never have been room for it on this small boat,
and you need a tough piece of kit for sail and canvas work. My trips home
may have seemed to the casual observer to have represented no more
than opportunities to clutter the living room there with canvas work in various
states of repair and construction, but in this way I have kept up with the
unforseeable demand for awnings that all long distance sailors
encounter.
I have finished Rebus and A C Grayling. The murders
are solved, but of course Big Ger the arch gangster gets off to fight another
story. Graylings little book 'What is Good? The search for the best way to
live', I thoroughly recommend. Rebus, especially, should dip into it,
though Big Ger may be irredeemable!! I have started on one of my Christmas
Books: Diamonds, Gold and War : a history of South Africa around the Boer
Wars. No inscription on the front cover, but I hope that I am right in
thanking Charlie for this.
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