A Day for the Numbers

Juno
Mon 1 Dec 2014 19:56
16:58.02N 028:18.80W

Day Eight at Sea - 01/12/14

We had a good night with medium-strong winds helping us get some distance from The Cap Verdes. Shrimpy became somewhat vocal in the morning "mood meeting" about having had to serve 5 hours on watch - 3 hours with Skip doing turn-on-turn on helming in the strong winds (something he had bemoaned the lack of on this very "autohelm" vessel). He went to bed exhausted only to be woken again to serve a second portion an hour later. Most of us slept long and deep.

When we left the CV we had 2,066nm to sail to reach the West Indies. There are really no course corrections to be effected. We have had our diversion. It is a straight run home with only wind-related bearing off to alter our course.

As you watch the numbers click down on the DTW screen (distance to waypoint) we would, for a moment (7.5 mins at 8 kts) discuss the merits of each number. Would we live until 2047? Would we arrive in St Lucia before 2016? Would any of us become grandfathers in 2015. By the early morning we were in the 1990's; these were the birth years of our children. We must have raised sail 4/5 times in the morning when the winds blew over 12-15kts. We would run for a while, often slightly north or our intended heading of 280 degrees (due West after magnetic variation adjustment), then the winds would fail, the sails come down and the engine would go on - we are determined to keep the run rate on the 7.5kts range for the first two days to get back in touch with the main ARC fleet. I have counted ten sail changes today.

After lunch we hit the early 1960's and late 1950's on the miles-to-run - in most cases ours and our partners' birthdates. The good years. We had fun with the war and inter-war years. We are now at 1880's and no one has the required depth of history knowledge to comment. As you can see, we are in this for the long haul. A very long haul indeed.

Aside from numerology, we have enjoyed two separate sightings of pilot whales. As I type, Shrimpy is feeding the last of the Costco Chorizo (unpopular and prone to giving mal de mer) to a swooping wide winged petrel. We are defo  sure that it is not an albatross. Killing it with the chorizo would bode ill.

1885 saw the end of the American Civil War. Whatever next?..... is it approximately the number of minutes Homan endeavours to sleep in a 48 hour period. Possibly the number of hairs in Shrimpy's burgeoning beard. We have not yet reached the level of boredom required to count them.



The sun has shone all day.

A stern ("solemn" not "back of boat") word from the Skip about St Lucia arrival dates. We have been delayed but are not racing to get to the finish. We just plan to work through the miles as normal and come home with hull, rig and most of the crew intact.