Nambia to St. Helena….Day 5
May 29th, written morning of May 30th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere, but not for long!) +1GMT
Just as I sent yesterdays blog, the wind shifted back to the south and came up at 12 knots. We set the full main and reacher and had a lovely day sail.
Just before dark, the winds picked up into the teens and we\’ve been off to the races ever since. There is maybe a bit of a lull this afternoon predicted, but after that, it\’s building winds to the barn (St. Helena).
The swell is up at 3.0 meters (10-11 feet) with the renewed winds. It\’s mostly a SWesterly swell so it\’s a bit beamy. Still, being a wide fat boat (Aka: Miss Piggy), it\’s lots easier on us than a \”monomaran\” which goes rolly polly in this stuff. Dave and Kathie of \”Sunflower\” have frequently posted in their daily position reports about the lack of enjoying the \”roll\” on their boat.
Last night was a sort of a milestone. \”Beach House\” (the boat, not crew) actually finished a circumnavigation of the earth! For those of you who don\’t know or need refreshing, the boat was built in Sette, France and launched on April 15th, 2004. Sette is at longitude 003 degree 42 minutes East. At midnight last night, we sailed through that longitude and hence by one metric, \”Beach House\” (the boat, not crew) has been around the world. The first third was on the deck of a Dockwise ship, but that\’s nit picking!..:-)
Cindy, my Dad, Paul Spicer and Dave Robertson were to sail with us across the Atlantic. We were weathered out and from Gibraltar had to sail back to Mallorca and ship the boat from there to Ensenada, Mexico. It was actually a great time; my Dad taking all of us on the \”Wine/Fish and Cheese Tour\” of Southern Spain. Every night, we stopped in a little marina and my Dad went straight to the nearest fresh fish restaurant, treating everyone in tow.
We also passed our half way mark yesterday around noon and currently have 560 miles to go. Our speed of course picked up dramatically last night, seeing many readings above 8 knots. Looks like a 165 nm for the day as the early part of yesterday was still pretty slow.
We\’ll position report within the hour. Tomorrow\’s lesson class…\”The Prime Meridian\”!…stay tuned.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki