The solo around the world yacht race and other sailing related items.
Land ahoy, peace aboard, live radio, airborn in the trades
Skippers log #28
03 57S 32 21W at 20:30 GMT
Land Ahoy! Five hours ago I sighted Fernando de Naronha on the horizon. This is the first land since Charleston disappeared astern 29 days ago. I felt the same excitement that every sailor across time has felt when spotting land. Just wish I could stop. 9 years ago I visited this Brazilian, Portuguese speaking, Island. I was sailing a gaff ketch built in 1899 to America with a crew of two. I put in to this island to leave a crew member ashore after I had discovered that he had drugs on the boat. I do not tolerate drug abuse of any form. I gave him the choice to leave, or I would hand him over to the authorities. It was on this island that my path first crossed with another sailing couple, Gabby and Alex. The next time our paths crossed was in Charleston 5 years later, where they had taken residence. Alex and his partner are building a beautiful 48 foot catamaran. If I had half a million dollars, that would be my new home. It has been rough all day. This evening I got into a bad mood when the land started to disapear astern. I would like an ice cream, fresh water shower and a dry bed. Land offers all of that. I was looking forward to a curry tonight, and on opening what I thought was curry, turned out to be a soup. This did not help my mood. Well, the next land fall will be my old home.
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Skippers log #29
06 22S 32 15W at 19:45 GMT
Nothing has changed since last night, just my latitude. The wind is still fresh, throwing a huge amount of spray over the deck. I am still with a full main and staysail set. Twice today, I thought I might get a chance to set a partial genoa, but then the wind freshened again to 20+ knots. I have done some writing, including my column for tomorrows Post and Courier. The windvane is steering to every windshift. I am reduntant aboard, so I fixed a dinner of rice, canned tomato and canned black muscles. I have laid in my rack in the saloon, sometimes just looking out at the clouds, watching the play between blue and white. I have not spoken a word since last nights conversation with Gwen. I do not feel tired, just tranquil. Have you ever experienced this type of peace? One cannot get any closer to nature than I am now. My life has been reduced to the most basic form, almost primitive, except for the fact that I am in a modernish vessel with technology. But day and night I am ruled by the power of the wind and the force of the sea. I wear no clothes, sleep when tired, eat when hungry. I have no need for money out here as all it can buy is time on the phone, but it can't feed me. This has been the ultimate in preparation and implimentation. The past is only mememories, the future is expectation, but now is just about the very basics...living, surviving, advancing. This has been a time to reflect. The only thing that gets an emotion out of me, is right now at the chart table and this drip. I have figured out that it is not the ballast tank, but a damaged fitting. With the seas breaking over the boat, water gathers on the deck for a while and is finding its way into my chart table. Everything is soaked in there, including my cameras. They were there because they were not working. Now they are wet, and still won't work. But my charts, ships papers, passport, letters, everthing in it is wet. I don't know how long that has been this way,as it was the first time in a week I went into it. But that is okay. It is not the end of this world. I will get it sorted out in CT. Tomorrow I will do another radio interview with a national South African station. Gwen and I have sacrificed five minutes of our conversation time tonight and again tomorrow for this call.
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Skippers log #30
09 05S 32 22W at 20:30 GMT
There are no ordinary days. Every day, every hour and every minute counts. This morning at dawn a ship crossed paths with me. At just the right moment the ship was positioned as the red hue of the sunrise encapsulated it. It was special. A short while later, I smelt the stench of its diesel engines, and I became grateful for the clean air that I have breathed these last 31 days. I am grateful for the stiff SE breeze that is propelling me just slightly west of South. I am grateful that everything on my boat is going smoothly, enabling us to cover 158 miles in the last 24 hrs. Too often in our hurried lives ashore, we forget to stop and be thankful of the many things in our lives. Sailors have expressed to me that they are concerned for me sailing such a small and lowly funded boat like mine in such a huge race as I am in. I would love to be in a sixty footer, doing over 350 miles a day, but I am grateful to be out here in this humble boat of mine doing what I can. Through the generosity of my family, Gwen, my sponsors, my Rotary club, our supporters and voluneers, the opportunity through various endeavors has enabled me to serve youth. I am thankful for the opportunity so many people have given me, particularly in enabling me to lay down the seeds of the No Barriers Education Foundation. In three weeks to a months time I look forward to being of service to youth in South Africa. Today I had the opportunity to go live on a SA radio program. I hope that the work of our Foundation ,and my experiences, can give any people the peace that I have found. About seven years ago in Ireland a young man stopped me on a street to share his admiration of a television program I had done. He was a student on his way to work at a fastfood chain when he saw me. But what really touched me was before we parted, he put his hand in his pocket and gave me the entire monetary content, about $4. He gave 100%. That type of generosity is moving. I am glad that I continue being able to repay his generosity by doing the work with youth that we do. It is so easy to make a difference in the life of others. Just stop a second and be thankful for what we have.
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Skippers log #31
11 50S 32 27W at 20:00 GMT
I am now just a passenger on my boat, now and again told by nature what to do. The SE wind and the seas have become master of this vessel, and I their obedient subject bowing to their whims. The Monitor Windvane has made my helming skills redundant. It steers better than I over a long period. If it could fix dinner, it would be the perfect crew. It has been a long time, so long that I don't remember time, that I have been on this tack. I fear to see what growth there must be on the red paint that has been immersed in the water. Is this a time warp? Nothing since yesterday, nor the previous day has changed. Before dark yesterday, I had the sense to furl the genoa. The wind was border line, and I could have pushed carrying the genoa into the night. But I listened to that sense, just as well. A system came through bring gusts up to 35 knots. With the spectra mainsail and staysail, she just healed over, bounced a lot more off the seas, and kept sailing. It has not been fun bouncing over the waves. There have been times when we have lept up out of the water, and would be airborn as I counted from one till five, before we would come splashing down into the seas. The entire boat would vibrate. The noise of the thud was deafening and frightening. I expect any second to hear the hull explode and water rushing in to engulf me, but instead she would plow along, till the next big swell and repeat the exercise, knowing it grates on my nerves. It is a game my boat has always played with me. So now I turn the Prudential CD player up louder, say thank you to the SC Ports Authority for allowing me to keep my boat out of the water for nine months and say thank you to Phillips Industrial Services and the volunteers for helping me prepare this boat. She is stronger with her new skin on the deck than she was before. I role over and snooze, knowing that she has been pounding for much of the 60,000 miles this boat and I have done together so far. I am now patiently waiting till we can pound our way into Table Bay.