It's a good start...

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 10 Sep 2011 16:33
South Atlantic Saturday 10th September 1539 UTC 1639 BST       
 
33:11.80S 017:25.27E
 
I thought I would just give a quick update because things are going very well and for certain they won't stay that way..... So I'm striking while the iron is hot, so to speak.
 
Time. I ahve decided as South Africa is only two hours ahead of UTC (GMT) and at home we are currently on British Summet Time (BST) that I would switch the ship's time to BST and that for the first time in two years would keep things simple.
 
Now a little bit about out here. Water temperature was down at 12 Deg Centigrade rounding Cape Agulhas. Off Cape Town this morning it was 16 deg Centigrade. Now it is already 17.1 Deg Centigrade. Apparently and strangely my diver friend in Capetown told me that in the summer in Capetown (Dec - February) the water temperature is at its coldest. It gets down to 8 Deg Centigrade which is causes by southerly winds and currents causing very cold Antactic water to well up around South Africa.
 
Where I am just now I have passed over the continental shelf, the two hundred metre contour, heading broadly North West. The sky is clearing to a blue grey in the north with it having been a very grey start to the day.
 
The sea all around me has the look of being full of fish. It may be my imagination but there are large amounts of seabirds, some huge, soaring all around me and into the distance as far as I can see to pick them out - oh! just touched 11.2 knots there.
 
The sun is sinking in the sky just to the west of our course and all is well with the world. The temperature is a perky 12 - 14 Degrees. A three quarter moon is now in the daylight sky to the south east of me.
 
I am not a pessimist but I have already been at sea today for seven hours and nothing has malfunctioned or broke. It will though. For some reason every time I have a lay up at a marina and head of on a long passage the boats bits seem to have an adverse reaction to heading off again across the worlds oceans. Plan for the worst - hope for the best eh? Watch this space!  
 
There are quite a number of ships around and also some fishing vessels as I am just 25 miles off the nearest coast.  I see a few of the ships are heading for Abidjan in the Ivory Coast and another heading across my bow to South America. A South African fisherman is just giving a lecture to an asian watch keeper on a large ship for running a CPA (Closest Point of Approach) of only 0.2 of a mile, as he is trawling....  
 
I had a splendid - woh, 11.5 knots there! - lunch of soup which the previous crew made and put in the freezer before paying off the ship and now a fantastic looking lasagne has just gone into the oven. I doesn't get much better....
 
It is a good start and I am thankful for it.