It's a good start...
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 10 Sep 2011 16:33
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South Atlantic Saturday 10th September 1539 UTC
1639 BST
33:11.80S 017:25.27E
I thought I would just give a quick update because
things are going very well and for certain they won't stay that way..... So I'm
striking while the iron is hot, so to speak.
Time. I ahve decided as South Africa is only two
hours ahead of UTC (GMT) and at home we are currently on British Summet Time
(BST) that I would switch the ship's time to BST and that for the first time in
two years would keep things simple.
Now a little bit about out here. Water temperature
was down at 12 Deg Centigrade rounding Cape Agulhas. Off Cape Town this morning
it was 16 deg Centigrade. Now it is already 17.1 Deg Centigrade. Apparently and
strangely my diver friend in Capetown told me that in the summer in Capetown
(Dec - February) the water temperature is at its coldest. It gets down to 8 Deg
Centigrade which is causes by southerly winds and currents causing very cold
Antactic water to well up around South Africa.
Where I am just now I have passed over the
continental shelf, the two hundred metre contour, heading broadly North
West. The sky is clearing to a blue grey in the north with it having been a very
grey start to the day.
The sea all around me has the look of being full of
fish. It may be my imagination but there are large amounts of seabirds, some
huge, soaring all around me and into the distance as far as I can see
to pick them out - oh! just touched 11.2 knots there.
The sun is sinking in the sky just to the west of
our course and all is well with the world. The
temperature is a perky 12 - 14 Degrees. A three quarter moon is now in the
daylight sky to the south east of me.
I am not a pessimist but I have already been at sea
today for seven hours and nothing has malfunctioned or broke. It will though.
For some reason every time I have a lay up at a marina and head of on a long
passage the boats bits seem to have an adverse reaction to heading off again
across the worlds oceans. Plan for the worst - hope for the best eh? Watch this
space!
There are quite a number of ships around and also
some fishing vessels as I am just 25 miles off the nearest coast. I see a
few of the ships are heading for Abidjan in the Ivory Coast and another heading
across my bow to South America. A South African fisherman is just giving a
lecture to an asian watch keeper on a large ship for running a CPA (Closest
Point of Approach) of only 0.2 of a mile, as he is
trawling....
I had a splendid - woh, 11.5 knots there! - lunch
of soup which the previous crew made and put in the freezer before paying off
the ship and now a fantastic looking lasagne has just gone into the oven. I
doesn't get much better....
It is a good start and I am thankful for it.
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