One More Night ~ Day 19 to the Marquesas
Balvenie
Mark Farrell & Amanda Church
Mon 10 Aug 2015 00:49
|
09 August 2015
~ Position 09 48S 136 25W at 1730 UTC, 0930 Boat Time (Alaska Time)
0530 tomorrow NZ Time.
Course Over Ground 265dT, Speed Over Ground
5.1 knots, 24 hour run just 112 miles sailed for net gain of 105
miles. Clear skies and starry night but total cloud cover early
morning now cleared. Wind dropped out entirely
yesterday afternoon so we dropped all sails and bobbed about going nowhere until
about midnight when we drifted off under poled out headsail Not putting
main back up, going fine like this with staysail sheeted in to leeward, even
more rolly but easy.
Absolutely no news, life in voluntary
solitary confinement is nearing the end, we are sure we can see the silhouette
of the Marquesas on the horizon if we look hard enough! This
has been such a long haul and our admiration goes out to those that have done
this before us, and those still to follow in our footsteps. You can have no understanding of the enormity of this
ocean until you undertake this voyage, there is nothingness forever.
Our very special thanks go out to John on
Osprey, currently land based in England, who has sent us daily updates on all
manner of current affairs, sport and especially weather, don't know how
many hours you have spent of it John but you have done and amazing job and we
thankyou greatly, still awaiting the arrival of the steamroller though, you've
let me down on that one! John did this trip single handed some years
ago, we take our hats off to him.
Huge thanks go also to fellow
cruisers David and Brenda on Bandit who did this trip last year, Bandit is
now home in Picton, New Zealand and David and Brenda are in the UK enjoying
summer. They have sent us lenghty daily emails that have entertained us
immensely detailing their daily grind of walks along canals, through National
Parks, visiting National Trust manors and castles, museums, farmers markets,
cosy pubs, trendy cafes ..... maybe there is life after cruising after
all.
Still no more fish, not at all
impressed.
And now to the big question ...... ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET? Well, it's 4.30pm
Balvenie time now (3pm Marquesas time) and the GPS tells us we have 120
miles to go and we have fair winds from behind forecast for our final push, we
will be in before dark tomorrow, so the all important answer is YES ~ WE
ARE NEARLY
THERE, just one more night!!! tick
tock, tick tock.
You can see our progress on a map on
our mailasail blog.
Position at 0100UTC when sent via satphone
09 55.08S 137 05.48W |