dolor in the doldrums
Fleck
Fri 31 May 2013 17:00
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Friday, 31st May 2013
Position; 4:42.1N 49:22.4
I havn't even botherd to measure it, but todays
position, at 17.30 UT, is little changed from yesterday. And, yes, this doldrums
weather is getting to me, just as it got to the sailors of an earlier
generation. The wind is all over the place, or absent, and today thick cloud
obscurs the sun. At the present moment the wind is from the south;
the weather forecasts are quite meaningless. The sea here on the edge of
the continental shelf have a pronounced big ocean swell, coming in from the SE,
and superimposed are the various wave patterns thrown up by the last couple of
squalls. It does not make for a comfortable or peaceful cabin. I ran the engine
for an hour this morning to charge the batteries, and just to feel that I was
going somewhere! I have a full tank, so I could motor for 200 miles or so, if I
knew that that would get me out of this weather. The only change in the last 24
hours has been the colour of the water. It can best be described as dirty grey,
like washing up water! It is the Amazon outflow, drifting up the coast with the
current: that is a lot of water!
Gosh, what a diatribe! It isn't as though someone
else forced this lot on me! Yesterdays bread was good, even though the brown
flour was at its sell by date. Less lucky with last night's St Helena egg, which
was decidedly off. At least I smelt it first! I have a good supply from Brazil,
so will not starve.
Today I confess that I have been at the
chocolate biscuits: comfort eating, but I think there is still room for bread
and cheese for lunch.
Have been reading an autobiography by a man called
Rupert Everitt: picked it up in a bookswap. He seems to be a 'B' list celeb, and
writes very well about his 'B' list friends, and their
adventures. Most of them, like him, are gay. His big moment was making a
film with Madonna (yes, I have heard of her, she is the lone 'A' lister!), but
it was a big flop, and the poor man has been flopping ever since. Still, Daddy
was a millionaire, so if our Ruppy is just a bit careful (he doesn't seem to be)
he should not die in rags. Well, it's another world, which is of course why we
read.
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