Walvis Bay, Namibia to St. Helena - Day 4
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 2 Jan 2013 11:58
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19:56.117S 02:48.006E
January 2, 2013
Halfway there.
Over halfway by now since the official halfway mark was
crossed last night at 1am. Sounds impressive until you factor in the total
distance to St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Calculated with the Caribbean as
the destination, we are only one-eighth of the way there. Hmmmm...best to
think in terms of halfway and St. Helena at this point - better for
moral. Not that moral is low. It's tough not to be upbeat when
sailing continuously on a broad reach in light to moderate seas and 10-20 knots
of mostly steady southeast trade winds. The sails haven't been adjusted in
days, instead we've changed course when needed to keep the wind less than
120 degrees off the bow. The conditions aren't quite right for
the downwind rig just yet, so a wind angle of 120 degrees or less will
generally keep us going at 7 knots or more - very pleasant. Pleasant
except for the gloom. We seem to be traveling around in a bubble of
gray. No rain, just gray. Yesterday the sun peeked out for a few
hours in the afternoon, but it was just a tease. Today we are back in the
gloom.
So, enough about all that. What's really important is
the dead fish count. Three for last night. Don says using higher
math, this proves beyond a doubt that the eleven dead fish on New Year's Eve
were drunk. It's possible the three last night were just trying to flee
their massive hangovers. Either that or they were so distraught over
their friends' untimely deaths, they inadvertently followed suit. Either
way, without any rain to swish it all away, Harmonie now sports a layer of Cape
Town black, a dusting of Namibian sand, a crust of salt, and a smattering of tea
leaves and coffee grounds (flung there with bad aim by the crew), all topped off
with a smelly smattering of flying fish blood, guts and scales.
Nice.
Up next: Crossing the prime meridian. Scheduled to
occur sometime tonight, which is too bad because once again we probably won't be
able to see the giant blue solid line running north/south underneath as we slide
over it. Of course we've never crossed the prime meridian
before, but we have plenty of experience with the International Date Line in
Fiji, which we crossed at least five times. In Fiji, however, the traffic
along that route is so heavy, the big blue solid line has faded into the blue
sea, so it's no longer visible. Or at least that's what we told ourselves
when we couldn't spot it.
540 miles to go.
Anne
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