Newsletter  11:   17 December 2007 

Day:                                                               9

Position:                                                       20:31.268N  37:42.749W 

Approx Miles from San Sebastian:              1360 

Approx Miles to go to Road Town:              1458                                                               

Note:  All times are GMT time, and will be for the whole trip.

            Miles are Nautical Miles, where 1 mile = 1.8 km

            Ohh, for those non-nautically orientated, a 'knot', among other things,  is 1 nautical mile per hour

            If it seems all funny units...its not, there is a very good basis: 1 nautical mile is equal to one minute of latitude on the earth's surface.

Hello Friends, and Supporters,

This is why I find sailing such a rewarding activity........full of challenge, strategy, decisions, emotional highs and lows, all in a very simple environment of eat, sleep, work, in pursuit of a crystal clear objective of crossing an ocean using only the wind as power!.......

..........Yesterday's newsletter probably gave you some feel for the difficulty of the decision I had to make, and the associated disappointment that my decision to take the risk of a 'short cut' had not worked. Well onboard here if was extremely difficult as I spent from 10am to 6 pm basically sailing 50 miles south to get to the lower latitude where the REAL trade winds were. (From 21 degrees 40N to about 20 degrees 50 N) During this time the GPS was showing that I was not getting any closer to Tortola, basically because I was on the fastest course to get me south! Revise strategy, implement, and don't whine or look back! Hmmmm...easier said than done, but I stuck to it. Maybe to help I went down below and spent a few hours undoing the 'birds nest' mess of fishing line from the other day's fishing escapade!! Therapeutic stuff! 

Well I couldn't have expected better, the wind freshened all afternoon, maybe just an afternoon norm, but then it continued into the night right through till 10 am this morning! At times it was blowing up to 25 knots but never below 18! Just wonderful stuff, and Solone just loved it! Although the 24 hr distance to Road Town only reduced by 144 miles, remember that there was about 50 miles of 'just' going south in there that doesn't show up! So all in all I had a close to 200 mile day, and certainly from 7pm to 8am this morning was on track for 240 mile day! The wind dropped a bit this morning, but still around 12 - 15 knots and hopefully freshening this afternoon, and another strong night! Experiencing what I am, and being down at 21 degrees 30N,  I am convinced I am in the REAL trades now, but probably only just! As the wind freshens this afternoon I will take the opportunity to edge a bit further south without compromising west-ing much. Sorry for all the detail, but (a) I find it exciting, (b) I don't feel as bad about the short cut as I was yesterday, as I was only 'just out', and (c) I thought some of you would find it all interesting! (Hopefully!)

Now for the challenges, sailing continues to present:   With the wind picking up on sunset, and a bit of an awkward following sea to contend with, Solone was hurtling down waves, often verging on screwing up, so I decided to put one reef before 'retiring to bed'! That was done without hassle, getting really good at that now, and I was lying in my bunk listening to the autopilot still struggling and then making a new grinding noise. Next thing the autopilot failure alarm goes...this happens fairly regularly when conditions are difficult, but this time as I shot out of the bunk to prevent 'a mess' it became clear to me that this time the autopilot tiller arm had seized 'vas' as they say in South Africa!. Ok I have a spare one, but then what....and I didn't expect a failure before halfway!  Funny it happens just as its dark and when the wind is pumping the most...! Ok find the replacement tiller and install it and yah back on track! Then the pessimistic realist side of me kicked in and I thought, I had better try and fix the seized one so I still have a spare! Set up a little workshop in the bow section, in fact right next to the now, 'wildly swaying' hanging Jamon leg, and start looking for spare parts I have from a previously failed one. The workshop is not you average stable bricks and mortar one at home, this one is rocking around, and sounds like one is in a flood water tunnel as Solone surfs down waves! Happiness is...its now 9pm and we are hurtling in  the right direction under control, and it looks like we are in the Trades! After an hour and a half of 'playing around' I think I have found cause of the seizure and have replaced the parts with bits and pieces from my 'throwouts'.  Time to go on deck an try it....and yes it's 100% and much more silent too....so back to 100% redundancy, and time to retire to the bunk a happy and content 'boy'! 

As I type the wind has picked up to a lovely 18 knots again, so my laptop keyboard has adjusted accordingly, to a 20 degree angle, and I now have 'music' too...the lovely sound of the waves rushing past the hull, and then the occasional 'hummmmmm! as the groove down a wave is engaged! Just bliss.....

Enough sailing stuff!

I was moved by this rare visitor i had yesterday..... as you probably appreciate, other than flying fish, the sun, clouds, stars, moon and wide open ocean there is not a lot else here. It was a lone migratory sea bird,  who came specially to circle Solone and find out something. I didn't recognise 'him' at first, but did think he is really special with his long pintail trailing out 30% of the probably 50 cm of total length. He circled once looking down at me, I felt the urge to get some 'food', but before I could he took off flying with mission toward the sun. I felt sad that I couldn't understand what he wanted and he then left so abruptly. Lo and behold 5mins later he was back and this time did two purposeful circles around 'US', once again looking down at me, before taking off towards the sun for good! Turns out , from my bird book, he was a Skua!  It may seem 'silly', but I was left thinking ....Why didn't he wait a bit more?... Did I read right, what he wanted? Maybe he wanted a place to rest?  Then... I though... Solo but NOT Alone..... hmmm... HE just seemed was VERY ALONE....how does it work....who does he talk to email, etc? Is there someone waiting for him to return? If so with what? Where are his parents and what is his purpose? All challenging stuff and makes on think.  In Spain with my sailing friends we watched a wonderful DVD called 'Travelling Birds'...about the big migratories, but not many do it ALONE!  Maybe he was 'lost' from his group. The way he returned and then dashed off twice, was almost as if he was late but needed something desperately for the trip ahead! Sorry the alone-ness is getting to me......in a great way... I love being able to 'feel' like this!

This pre-sunrise morning was another special time......  Another lovely, starry, albeit by that time moonless night, and it was such exhilarating sailing out there I decided to make myself a cup of coffee and go and sit outside on the weather rail and 'just be'! It was 5 am with the sunrise due for around 7am, and it was just SUCH a special time. Nothing to stress me about, just thinking many weird things.... eg  Why are there never stars right at the horizon? Isn't it lovely that sailing almost directly east to west, means I literally sail from sunrise to sunset...if you know what I mean.... Ok enough now!   

We are all aware of 'A Sunday Lunch'....well today at Restaurant Solone, we are having a 'Monday Lunch' to celebrate the Trade winds and to dream that they will continue! This may surprise you, but this will be the first 'proper', hot lunch I would have had since the trip started.  Just sandwiches and snacks normally...so this is a special occasion...I just feel, like it!  I have 'all' the ingredients laid out on the galley counter, and will start straight after this. 

Hope you have a good week ahead, with most of your Christmas shopping behind you, as you run up (down) to Christmas! (For those who celebrate!)

Howard