08:52.68S135:39,68W 8th July We are the Perpetual Centre of our horizon.

Zoonie
Tue 12 Jul 2016 20:15

8th July We are the Perpetual Centre of our horizon.

The wind, raised sea state and three metre swell left us two nights ago and now we have a light breeze, a well-rounded ocean and one to two metre swell pushing us forward as the Diva leads us at around 4 knots in a wind of little more strength.

Fish are eluding us so it was corn on the cob and a toasted garlic roll for lunch yesterday and stir fry with noodles last night.

Thanks to Zoonie’s calmer motion we were able to move the stern anchor from deep within the lazarette into the mooring line locker ready to deploy it in our first anchorage. It is recommended to keep a yacht perpendicular to the shore so she faces into any swell from the ocean. So the bow anchor is dropped and the chain laid out as we reverse towards the shore, then the stern anchor is dropped once Zoonie is stationary. Then the stern line is laid out while pulling in on the bow until the vessel is nicely placed in sufficient depth and distance from the shore.

That’s the theory anyway. We will see of other yachts have done the same when we get there.

Meanwhile Henry and the Diva are working so well together I wonder if they are married. Zoonie feels like a machine with finely tuned steering at one end and an efficient power source at the other, using every ounce of available breeze.

For the last 24 hours we have been jibing the Diva from one side to the other, sailing a zig zag course down our rhumb line.

12th July

The fish are wily around here, that’s two that have escaped from our line, so its bangers and mash for Rob tonight.

We have just been wrestling with a squall that came up behind us just after breakfast. The breeze rose to 31 knots in heavy rain so we reefed the genoa. The main is safe inside the mast. Zoonie was pushed smartly around at 90’ to our desired course and Henry was out of his depth, so Rob took over and we briefly had 6 knots of speed taking us in the right direction.

The moon is waxing in our night sky reminding us that it was a month ago we set off and the moon was full and bright at night then. The ancient cycle continues.

As we have now passed the 135’ Longitude we are now 10 hours behind you back in the UK