Walvis Bay, Namibia to St. Helena - Day 5
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 3 Jan 2013 11:02
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19:27.623S 0:00.850W
January 3, 2013
Mysteries at sea.
Did you notice the 'W' in place of the usual 'E' in our
longitude position above? If so, then you'll know we recently crossed over
the prime meridian and have re-entered the western hemisphere after nearly four
years (Fiji, 2009). We crossed in daylight, but still didn't see the
line. After fruitlessly attempting to spot various major latitude and
longitude lines over the past five and a half years, we've finally
decided it's hopeless. As much as we'd like to think they really exist,
they don't. What a letdown.
The prime meridian line may not physically exist, but
that doesn't make it any less significant, which leads us to wonder why
longitude gets the short end of the stick? There are all kinds of rituals
meant to be followed when sailing across the equator, but where's the fuss
when crossing the International Date Line or prime meridian? What is it
about the equator that rates all the glory? Is it because the prime
meridian runs through Greenwich, England and therefore is not viewed as
extraordinary or exotic? Whereas equatorial regions like Ecuador
and Borneo are? Perhaps that's it then, longitude is simply not sexy
enough. Huh.
So, moving on to the dead fish count - four last night.
Here's another mystery for you: why is it that flying fish choose to
commit suicide by sailboat only at night? Is their night vision so poor
they can't see our black hull bottom in the black sea? Or their
hearing so bad they don't notice our swishing approach above the
normal sea noise? Or they find the nightly cloud-filled gloom as
depressing as we do? These are the things we spend time thinking about
while at sea.
And the sailing.
Yes, the sailing. We spend time thinking about
that. Although in conditions like these (yup, again with the 10-20 knots
of wind from the southeast), not a lot of thinking is necessary. However,
there was a major event this morning when captain and crew decided it was time
to switch from a broad reach powered by genoa, main and mizzen, to the downwind
rig powered by genoa and ballooner poled out to either side. As usual, the
change to the downwind rig took us about an hour to complete, but it was done
with nary a glitch. We are now pointed directly at St. Helena with the
wind behind us, rolling gently along at something over 7 knots.
390 miles to go with anticipation of a Saturday evening or
Sunday morning arrival.
Anne
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