Sunday 27th November
957 miles sailed (in 10 more miles we will hit one third of our estimated
journey length of 2,900)
1925 to go
Firstly apologies to David for 'correcting incorrectly' his spelling of
'poring' in yesterday's log.
Much of the talk throughout the day is about trying to predict how many days
we will be at sea. This is virtually impossible in actual fact as we still
do not know what conditions lie ahead. We are marking our noon position on
the chart Vicki used to mark the position of Northern Child in 2006 and are
keeping remarkably close to her track. The trade winds should kick in at
about a latitude of 17 degrees, currently we are 19 degrees and 3 minutes N,
there are 60 minutes in a degree and each minute is 1 nautical mile so we
are currently 120+ miles from that area - at least one day's worth of
sailing. However, the current weather forecasts are showing that we may
have to go further south than this before we pick up the trade winds - then
hopefully we will finally take off. We are starting to ration our goodies
to a certain extent as we do know that this crossing is not going to be one
of the fastest ever made, but we are all in agreement that the goodies are
needed now - if we run out when we are within 500 miles of St Lucia we will
be so excited about nearly arriving we will be to live with a shortage of
chocolate.
Teamwork is the 'no need to ask' top quality on this boat. David had had a
broken sleep the night before due to a sail change and a particularly
violent squall, so he retired to bed for a snooze yesterday afternoon. This
turned into a deep sleep so the others organised a watch change so that the
Addeys did the first watch of the night as David would not have been ready
to go to bed at 8 pm. Even the toilet roll fairy pops out when needed,
without being summoned. As I write this Fiona is washing the hand towels,
again her own suggestion. Helen is our produce checker and is regularly
found in the forepeak sorting out what must be eaten today.
One of the high spots of yesterday was a clear sighting of a pod of killer
whales - five of them. We don't have any photographs as their appearance
above the surface was brief and erratic, but they were fairly close.
Despite making only steady progress, our spirits are very high. One of the
many advantages of the Moody 41 is the spacious cockpit; there is plenty of
room for all of us up there especially as we are able to use the pulpit
seats in these conditions. Paul had the foresight to download some
half-hour comedy radio programmes such as 'The News Quiz' (very weird as one
we heard was pre-the USA presidential election and the contestants are
laughing about the ludicrousness of a successful Trump campaign - in keeping
with today's title that is indeed awful and wonder-inducing), after dinner
we are gathering around the loudspeaker to listen to one before we settle
down for the night. However, last night, the radio was usurped by the
sunset - we had no need for further entertainment (see today's photo which
is of the view directly opposite the sun). This preceded a wonderfully warm
night with a fantastically clear sky. Jon is our resident planet expert,
which together with information gleaned from an ARC seminar in Las Palmas
and the apps on our I pads, means we are all enjoying the Galaxy Show; the
awe and wonder of the night sky, totally untainted by light pollution, is
something to behold.
Spiritual times.
Vicki
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