May 24th (EASTERN Hemisphere again!), 2011 – 10 p.m. local time.
Conditions: 21 deg 20 min SOUTH 178 deg 19 min EAST (zig zagged the date line). Wind: 25 East Swell: 3 meter ESE (more East). Heading: 340 deg T Speed: 8.5 knots (a bit bumpy again, but quite livable) Barometer: 1017 Day 6 run: 182 nm
122 nm to Kandavu (first outer island of Fiji for us). Should see it before dark tomorrow. 228 nm to Lautoka, port of entry, Western Fiji – Viti Levu Island. Expected Landfall, Thursday, May 26th mid day local time (same as New Zealand).
\”Galileo\”….Indigo Girls
Dear F&F, Tonight is a clear sky \”high pressure\” night. It brings to mind the astronomer \”Galileo\”. He was convicted and condemned for \”telling the truth\”. It\’s an introspective song dealing with our fate, re-incarnation and reliving our mistakes or the those of others who\’ve gone before us.
The BFH (aka: big fat high) that we left New Zealand on with it\’s big Southerly winds is still our dominant weather phenomenon. It was as good as it gets leaving New Zealand in the late Fall to head to the tropics. The wind has started turning to the East as well as the swell due to the BFH moving Eastward 1500 miles to our South. It\’s still blowing a blue streak out there, we\’ve two reefs in the main sail and the staysail up on the port side.
We had to stow the spinnaker pole as we had to start being concerned about losing our hard fought for \”Easting\”. The wind is actually slightly ahead of the beam, we\’d sure like last nights dead run back (wind right astern). We did cover 200 nm from 7 p.m. last night to 7 p.m. tonight.
On the radio tonight, I heard old friends Joan and Chuck on s/v \”Tender Spirit\”. Joan was joking last week that despite the 1200 miles we were behind them in arriving in Fiji (they are coming from Majuro in the Marshall Islands), they had little wind and we had lots. She said, \”you\’ll probably beat us anyway!\”. I didn\’t believe it then, but now I do. They\’re still 250 miles out and so are we. We have wind, they have little and we\’re lots faster to begin with. So goes sailing on big oceans.
So tonight as I stare at the Universe above and all the glory of the stars in the heavens, I think of Galileo and how he was light years ahead of his time. And condemned for it…. Here\’s to you Galileo, \”King of night vision, King of insight\”….
Short tonight, more tomorrow…. Scott with sleeping culinary Kate (She\’s really a good chef. Tonight was shrimp curry)