I spy with my little eye - nowt.
X86
Rich Carey
Thu 3 May 2018 21:13
For the last two days I've tried to lay the line at dawn (sail directly at the target). I was slightly under, and the wind has been varying to more ENE in the later afternoon, causing a slight swerve even further south. Thus I've needed to climb back up during the night. I think I'll probably need to do the same tonight but for less hours, and then I'll have the target in the cross hairs for the remaining.
Only 668 nauticals to go, as of dawn today, so down to the last 5 days. Am I glad to be not so far off arriving/finishing? Only 'sort of'!
There was a famous 'race' back in probably the 60's. Look up 'Donald Crowhurst'. Half a dozen epic adventurers (Blyth as well if memory serves), set sail around the world. They were a bizarre lot and the race epitomized 'bizarre' by the end. The route was/is, down to South Africa, turn left and keep going straight past Tasmania until Cape Horn - turn left again and head back up to Blighty. Some guy recently did it in under a month (some monster high tech trimaran I think), but back then it was six months to a year (excuse my vagueness, I have no Interweb here to check and adjust my memory). One of the competitors, rounded Cape Horn and didn't turn left - he kept going straight beginning a second lap! I can't remember what happened to him, just that he had decided that he wanted to stay at sea, and there were a lot better places to head for anyway, than Blighty!
I can empathize in that when the conditions are right, and the boat is not giving you concern, this sailing solo in the middle of nowhere is rather enjoyable. I haven't seen anything man made off the boat for over a week now, and the very very few sightings I've had this trip, were distant and very brief. It's not the place to play 'I spy with my little eye'.
One thing on the mind and discussion table with Karen 'Scotty' Carey, is when I'm going to stop this larking about! To that end we're now thinking to have x86 in Australia by the end of Oct, and sell her pronti pronto. This can be a slow process, so should begin ASAP after arrival. If we want to live topside (Europe) for the immediate future, then shipping x86 to the Med could be an option, but at 50K for shipping and 70k for Euro tax, this makes little sense. I could sail to the Med, but it would take another 6 months and 'Scotty' would have divorced me by then. At least she knows I love her more than the boat ;-)
That's it.
All's well on x86, largely news free, but updating anyway so that my location is known (SPOT coverage being mostly non existent in these parts).
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