Last few miles to Tobago
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Sat 29 Mar 2008 21:35
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Final day at sea.
10:51N 59:51W
1000hrs 29th March
In the early hours of this morning Venus rose for
the twentieth time since we left Ascension Island out of the eastern sky.
Shining brightly against a background of dark inky blue which slowly turned
paler and through many shades of turquoise and gold eventually became bright
blue. By this time the power of the rising sun had long extinguished
Venus's twinkle. Earlier in the night our changing situation had been
spelled out as just forward of our starboard beam the pole star shone faintly
through the salty atmosphere just ten degrees above the horizon. Meanwhile
off our port quarter with its two pointer stars well below the horizon the four
stars of the southern cross blazed defiantly at us calling us back. I am
sure we will never go by sea, after all as Nordlys's name implies she is a
northern lady and so at heart are her owners. We have however much enjoyed the
sight of the cross for the last six years and will never forget all the
adventures we have had as she has shone down upon us.
As all this was happening in the heavens a stiff
force five was blowing out of the east and at last the counter current died and
we even has a little help from a favourable stream. This helped us to get
to our present situation, 53 miles to run to Scarborough, Tobago and nine hours
of daylight to do it in. We should be able to do this, I hope so as I
think that the mate could not stand the strain of yet another night
arrival.
I will put a postscript on the end of this when the
anchor is down. I know that I will not feel like writing much as the
bottle will have the cork out and the bubbles will be being released into the
atmosphere, that is those that do not go down our throats before they
escape.
David
PS
After a final three hours of motoring over a very
disturbed sea and with no wind the anchor went down in the scruffy dirty harbour
of Scarborough. Appears to be little changed from 7 years ago. Never
mind we are here and tomorrow, after a whole night of undisturbed sleep we
hope, we will do the formalities and go around to a nice anchorage ten miles
away. Then we will stop moving for a few
days!
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