Day 11

Pearl of Persia
Andrew Lock
Sat 1 Dec 2012 16:19
Lat 16.50;0N long 57.16:0W

We've now covered 1800 miles since leaving Cape Verde and the boat has
performed perfectly. Apart from a distant sail boat on day 4 and a tanker
just after leaving the last port we've seen no other shipping. We could be
the only people in the world.
Baked a cake yesterday, the first one ever, and used one of the remaining
5.....now 4 eggs. Tea time is more civilised with a cake. It did come out
rather like a wedge on account of the boat heeling over as it baked. I've
also been making yoghurt and Swiss style Bircher Muesli for breakfast....the
last was today as the fruit is finished.....recipe, shred a small pear or
half apple, add 4 big spoonfuls of raw porridge oats, a small glass of
orange or apple juice, bit of honey, spoonful of seeds, some dried fruit,
mix all together and leave for a few minutes, serve with fresh yoghurt.
Each day we plot our position on a small scale chart, marking the position
with a small cross in a circle and each day after 24 hours sailing, the new
mark is an inch or two closer to our destination. As we plot our way across
the ocean on the chart, the right hand side showing Senegal in west Africa
and the left hand side showing Panama, the details of the sea bed are shown
and it reminds us that the ocean sea bed is not just a smooth basin but full
of underwater mountain ranges, canyons, ridges with evocative names such as
the Vema Fracture Zone, The Gambia Abyssal Plain, the Mid Atlantic Ridge and
most tantalising of all the Seamounts, the parts that rise up from the great
depths and almost break the surface to produce islands, the almost islands,
maybe rising from 5000 meters to only 20 meters below the surface. Just
another few dozen meters and we would have more sunshine islands