17 January 2011
One fabulous day follows another but our progress towards St Helena is very slow. It isn't very often when we can get to write the word 'slight' in the sea state column on our log sheet but for the last 48 hours this has been the case. Voyageur goes at a snail's pace. Perhaps she is also getting a little weary now of all the travelling. We tweak this and that, jibe the main back and forth, trying to coax every last little knot of speed out of her but in winds around ten knots she just cannot go any faster. Wild Tigres and A lady are due to arrive today. Our own ETA like many of the others will be sometime during Wednesday, the 19th. I am taking advantage of the calm conditions to make sure everything on the boat is clean and tidy so that we can maximise our short stay at St Helena. On the net yesterday evening several of the boats, Ariane , A Lady, Tucanon, and Tzigane announced that they had completed their first circumnavigation. We will not cross our own out bound track until we reach 05 degrees 21 minutes west, the longitude to Gibraltar, somewhere east of the island. I can almost hear the champagne corks popping.
It is getting warmer by degrees. We took down our cockpit screen for the first time, since leaving South Africa. It was having a greenhouse effect and we too were requiring more watering! Nights are as near perfect as they can be. It is wonderful to see the setting sun once more and two nights ago saw our first 'green flash' in quite some time. But it is not so much of a flash, rather more a 'loom' of green light. There are different theories about this phenomenon but David is convinced it is merely an optical illusion. We have light nearly all night. The moon already high as the sun sets and almost full now, floats in a sea of stars. The reflection that it casts on the surface of the sea makes it look like molten metal. As it goes down Venus is there to take its place. Shortly after that it is the dawn of a new day......
Susan Mackay