The solo around the world yacht race and other sailing related items.
Dilema, sunfish
Skippers log #42
42 05s 56 00w at 20:00GMT with 430 miles to go
It is taking forever for these last miles to come down. I have headwinds when I want the wind from the stern quarter most. We are punching into a short sea, no doubt whipped up by the Brazilian current which we are starting to buck. Just a few more days and I will have completed a solo circumnavigation. Yes, Punta is where my circumnavigation unofficially started 4 years ago when I sailed the last leg of the BOC Challenge to Charleston. I am really bored with my meals on board. Tonight I had noodles doctored with smoked mussels and parmesan cheese. I have been putting off eating Gwen's last curry. Tomorrow night maybe. My mother will be join me in Charleston for the end of the race. More and more reasons to look forward to getting back to Charleston. But I know, given a few months ashore, and I will be eager to get back to sea. But any voyage I under take from here will be easier than what I am now completing. If only we can just make these last miles come down faster.
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Skippers log #43
40 35s 55 05w at 16:40 GMT with Punta 337 miles away
Today life was good. I ate the last of my GW Curries, and washed it down with some long life custard. I have been saving that last of Gwen's curries for a special occasion, but as I decided that every day is special, and today is no different, I will indulge. So tomorrow's meal will be whatever shop bought dregs are left, and of course the following day will hopefully be dinner ashore, but we still have a long way to go and not going fast. The head winds cost us dearly. I have a wind on the beam at present, and I am heading inshore, not directly to Punta, as I suspect that the wind will come from the North again and I am trying to minimize the amount of tacking I will need to do. Today I had a run in with a sunfish. The poor sunfish was flopping around on the surface minding its own business and I was bellow deck when I head this dull thud on the hull and we lost significant speed. I race up on deck thinking I had hit a log or ran into kelp again, but there wallowing in my wake was the sunfish and the water clouded around it with its scales. I watched it for a while and it seemed uninjured by its encounters with my hull. I hope that I am a few barnacles less. I would hate to think that the sunfish endured some discomfort for neither of our gains. Now if only we can get to port. I am craving BBQ steak with some grizzle on it, and icecream.
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Skippers log #44
38 28s 55 47w at 16:40 GMT with 214 miles to Punta
The miles are coming down slowly. The wind is right on the nose, and we are sailing 45 degrees off the course we want. The seas are not to bad with sunshine. Yesterday I had literally a thousand or more dolphins play in my view. Wherever I looked, I could see dolphins leaping and bounding. At one point, they were doing somersaults in pairs, and I could see three pairs airborne a mile or two distant. I felt that I could not go into port looking like a salty dog, so I found my battery razor, took it apart, cleaned it up, lubricated the terminals, scrapped away at the rust, and after nearly taking the motor apart, got it working and had a shave. I have had to hot wire it as the switch is corroded, so to turn it off I have to remove the batteries. But I will look respectable when Gwen sees me on Thursday. I will beat her in but by how much is any ones guess. I am out of chocolate, and have just enough Balance Bar drinks to get into sight of land. I spent a while talking to Jesse on Lionheart, sharing what experience I have of the Southern Indian Ocean and the waters around the Cape of Good Hope when he gets into that area in about 3 months time. His turning mark is the Azore Islands where hopefully he will have a glimpse of his family. He is in ideal sailing conditions, having had the first opportunity today to do his laundry. While talking on the radio to him, Neil and Minuro, a large fishing boat crept up on me. I spotted it when it was 3 miles away. The VHF radio is alive with traffic as I approach the busy sea lanes again going into the River Plate. Soon we will be in the river as well.