Thursday14.38N,58.35W 140 miles to go
Moonshine
Fri 15 Dec 2006 06:09
As we are averaging about 145 miles per day, that means we will arrive at this time tomorrow.
It's currently 5 a.m. Friday morning - thats still Thusday in my book until it gets light - and with the moon not yet risen, is as dark as it gets!
Last time I made landfall at Rodney bay, I had trouble finding the finish line in daylight. This will not be a doddle!
First there is the unlit North end of the island to avoid - this has bumpy bits in it. Then we turn South to round Pigeon Island - not an island, but does look like a pigeon sitting in the water. Thats if we can see it at all. The snag is , it only looks like a pigeon if one views it from inland. We would not want to do that at this stage. Then we look for the finish line, unlit at both ends. One end is marked by a flag flying on one of the boats, of the 50 or so that will be anchored in the bay. The other end is an unlit bouy in amongst those same boats.We have to pass between them, under sail, heading East. Thats directly towards the rocks.
Having then crossed the line (!) we have to find the cut in through the beach that is the entrance to the marina. This is a very narrow manmade channel (25 metreswide) that is lit, but with the navigation marks the wrong way round.(we are closer to America now and they reverse all the marks - honestly - it's true)
Then we find a vacant berth an an unlit marina. Not a doddle!
I will not be writing the diary at this precise time tomorrow!
Sufficient to the day ----
Thursday was a lovely day. The highlight was a pod of porpoise bigger than I have ever seen. That was true both of their size, and the pod's size.
They were different to those we've seen before. Snub nosed with a sort of placid benign expression. A secret smile rather than the mischievious grin of a dolphin.
They were about 6 - 8 feet long on average, almost small whales, and in huge numbers.The colouring was different too. These were a uniform very dark grey/brown, only slightly lighter underneath. They swam with us for a while, ignoring us, but surfing the waves alongside the boat. Sometimes there were 5 or 6 shoulder to shoulder on the same wave. There must have been hundreds in the pod. We felt priveleged to have been there.
It was very hot today. Mid afternoon saw two of us dozing under cover, and Alun sitting on the side deck, race style, dangling his legs in the water to cool down. The seawater is warm enough to be neutral to touch, but is cooling.
There has been little wind today. Not enough to hold the boat steady, and it has been rolling uncomfortably. We have been using the motor to get us some forward movement, having worked out that the penalty is to our advantage. We had a shock today though when the boat rolled so badly that the engine sucked air into the system, and stopped. Bleeding a diesel engine in a violently rolling boat is not a pleasant job, so falls to the captain! - Is that right?
Once again, thankyou for following our diary, and for your emails
Rod Dave and Alun
SY Moonshine
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