Day 9 - Officially in the Middle of Nowhere, Halfway to the Middle of Nowhere
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 18 Mar 2008 20:02
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08:04.558S 114:02.406W
It's official. We are in the middle of
nowhere, over halfway to the middle of nowhere.
To the west, it is 1,451 miles to the closest land
(Marquesas)
To the north, it is over 3,000 miles to the closest
land (Hawaiian Islands)
To the south, it is 1,300 miles to the closest land
(Easter Island)
To the east, it is 1,550 miles to the closest land
(South America)
We don't think we will ever be more in the middle
of nowhere than we are right now.
The funny thing is, it doesn't feel any different
than it does when we are only a couple of hundred miles away from land.
The scenery certainly is no different. The ocean basically looks the same
no matter where we are. Once we were far enough away from
land for the beautiful deep sapphire blue color to make an appearance,
nothing changed. Well, almost nothing, the wave heights change and the
cloud patterns change, but we are basically looking at 360 degrees of water and
sky regardless of whether we are thousands or hundreds of miles away from
land. Sometimes it feels like we are on a giant water treadmill - moving
fast, but not really going anywhere. It's not like there are any landmarks
or mile markers along the way. There's just water. If it weren't for
all of our fancy navigation equipment, it really would be tough to
tell whether we have actually made progress or not (unless of
course we got the sextant out and took a reading of the sun's position at high
noon every day...). I can't imagine what crossing the
Pacific must have been like for the early explorers. At any moment
they must have thought they were either going to fall off the edge of the
world or bump into land. After months at sea, it's possible they wished
the edge of the world would come sooner rather than later...
As I write this, one bit of scenery is
different. We are actually passing another sailboat, which is about a
quarter of a mile away. The name of the boat is Neeva, and after talking
to them on the radio, we've learned that they are part of a rival
round-the-world rally put on by Blue Water Cruising. So, here we are in
the middle of nowhere, halfway to the middle of nowhere, and we come
within one-quarter of a mile of a boat that is not even part of the
World ARC rally. Amazing. We are truly not alone.
Now it's time for...
Marquesas Semi-Useless Factoid #8:
Although there are no indigenous animals on the
Marquesas Islands. Many animals were brought to the islands over the
years. As a result, the small island Ua Huka (pronounced wa-huka) is
overrun with more than 1,500 horses and 3,000 goats which have almost deforested
the landscape. With less than 600 people living on the island, the
combined population of horses, goats and cattle outnumber the population by
about ten to one.
Anne |