Walvis Bay, Namibia to St. Helena - Day 7
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 5 Jan 2013 11:19
|
16:33.507S 04:31.498W
January 5, 2013
Nearly there.
Why is it that the end of almost all long passages tends to be
painful? The last eight hours into South Africa battling a 30 knot
headwind were excruciating. The last six hours into the Marquesas
from the Galapagos were equally excruciating with big seas, no wind and fading
daylight. This time we have very light wind, and waves big enough to send
Harmonie rocking like a perpetual motion machine, sails and rigging banging
away. Not quite excruciating, but definitely annoying. At this
pace (4.5 knots), we'll arrive in St. Helena in the wee hours of the morning,
hopefully after the moon appears. We could fire up the engine, but that
would only get us to St. Helena in the pure black of midnight - so
better to sail slowly and arrive in the semi-lit wee hours. Besides,
this way we'll be able to say we didn't use the engine at all on the this
passage - very satisfying!
The last twenty-four hours have been uneventful - moderate to
light winds (still in the 10-20 knots from the southeast category), and slow,
but steady progress. The clouds persist, the freezer struggles and we
continue to roll if not merrily, then at least steadily, along.
Zero drunken dead flying fish again last night.
80 miles to go.
Anne
|