Solo
but not Alone! ![]()
Newsletter
16: 22 December
2007
Day:
14
Position: 19:21.295N
52:06.413W
Approx Miles from San
Sebastian: 2134
Approx Miles to go to Road
Town: 684
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,
Sorry
for the incorrect date yesterday...and maybe a few others days.....As I said
before, I'm not good on all these details....and need a publisher!! Checked
them all today and all is 100%!
Well
I have now been at sea for 2 weeks, each day adding a new milestone to the
longest time I have spent ALONE at sea! The other thing this milestone
brings up is a review of how I am doing against my set out objectives?
Hmmm...the 12 day record has gone, and it looks like with a fair amount of good
weather and good fortune I could just 'snuck in' on the 15 to 18 day, "Average
performance"!! With a day or so of light wind forecast ahead, I could move
into the post 18 day time horizon. There is also a As those that have sailed
will say. "You will get there when you get there", and how true is
that!. I am also conscious of trying not to focus on the end point
and to just manage each day as it comes, sailing as best as I
can.
As
you will see from the distance to Road Town figures, yesterday was a bit of a
'slow' day, with 129 miles covered. Most of that was due to the light wind...I
only had 6-12 knots for 14 hrs, and once again it was dead astern meaning I had
to zig zag my way through the night. I took the opportunity to accurately
calibrate the boatspeed instrument and try and work out the optimum downwind
tack angle. Surprisingly at the low wind speeds it paid to go as far down as 50
degrees! A bit of a challenge for the mind when one makes a course change
to go 50 degrees away fro where you want to go, trusting that in the end it will
get me there faster.! So while the log shows I only did 129 miles the
actual distance sailed would be maybe 20 to 25% more. This is also the
reason why I don't report true distance sailed each day. Sorry all technical,
but some may find it interesting.
Conditions
improved early this morning with the wind speed increasing and moving to a very
favourable angle. Currently its blowing 20-25 knots, I am 'spot
on' course and 'we' are doing 8 knots. Sun is shinning, the sky has a
'nice cloud' look, rather than a 'squall cloud' look, so hopefully 'we' have a
great day ahead!
I
took the light conditions opportunity of yesterday to recuperate from the
previous two days. After doing all the boat stuff, and drying out all
the wet gear (from the rainstorm) I settled down to starting to read my heavy
book....'The Essential of Jung'!! Haven't felt like getting into it to
date, but yesterday it just provided amazing food for thought at the right
time! Probably needed to have the difficult time of the previous days
to bring me back to reality!
Today
I got back into my outside shower routine and decided to add a shave to the
pre-breakfast activities! Yeah..that unshaven look is not for
me.....mainly because I don't have the good facial hair cover, so it looks all
patchy! Oh also it was 'quite' grey/silver...and I REALLY didn't like
that! I found that my Pantene shampoo lathers in saltwater, so my hair
should be happy having its treat too!
For
breakfast I made an 'almost fresh' fruit salad....fresh oranges, fresh apples,
tinned peaches, and dried kiwi fruit, mixed with a special, and very
nice, Soya / apple juice drink I found in San Sebastian.
I
haven't seen a ship or any other signs of human beings for three days now...just
open ocean and the odd wandering sea bird. The sunrise this morning was
specially spectacular, and I have capture it (Another sunrise / sunset!) nicely
on camera.
My
alarm clock battery ran out today, so the alarm never went....fortunately I
didn't need it, but with all its 'alarming' a new battery only lasted 2
weeks!
Food
stocks are going well.....the Jamon is still great, but I can see 'bone' in many
pIaces
now, and carving is becoming more difficult...if there is still some left, it
will probably be a good idea to have it out of custom's sight in Tortola! If its
almost finished.... There will be a memorial burial at sea!
I
include the above detail to give you some idea of how simple life gets 'out
here'...it may seem odd, but its this simplicity of being and purpose that
provides me with the clarity of mind and feeling of peace. In an email
today, Ruth told me that my howfair {CHANGE TO AT} bigpond {DOT} com mailbox is full and
rejecting new emails..... well normally that would have stressed me, but I
thought..."It can all wait...what can I do from here anyway?" Sorry if you
have had returned mail...it will get solved once I get to Tortola. I REALLY
can't wait to read some of your emails.....just a pity I can't get them out
here, as it would just clog up my data link which is critical for the weather
files I receive.
That's
about it for now.....
Be
good, and have a great weekend
Howard
