When we had 100 miles to go, John asked for our predictions on when we would sight land. Joe said that at 0 miles, he was 100% sure we would see it. John was closest with his guess of 40 miles. At 42 to go, he saw land clearly on the horizon.
We now have about 25 to go to cross the finish line. After crossing, we have a few more miles to go before reaching the anchorage. Nica just wrote and said there anchorage is very crowded with poor holding and they advise against entering at night. We will be arriving around 12 am Marquesas time so may have to kill time if we don’t feel like we can find a good spot tonight. We do have a full moon which may give us the light we need.
It was worth being out here one more night for the spectacular sky show we had. You can see the gorgeous sunset that went on and on, continually outdoing itself. But, as Cobin said, “Everyone is looking in front - take a look behind us!” There, just rising out of a cloud bank, was a full orange-y moon. It is the first day of fall in this part of the world and, while it doesn’t feel fallish in the air, the sky looks how I remember skies looking in fall.
The only drawback to what was another great day on the ocean is that Tully is running a fever and has a sore throat. Perhaps someone more versed in how people get sick than I (and that’s just about everyone) can explain how she got sick. I thought viruses died after some period of time and we have had no new inputs to our little world for two weeks so, how did she get sick? Something floating through the air? A mystery to be solved later, when I have more information than what is contained inside my brain on this topic.
Off to enjoy my last few minutes of watch before the gybing and flurry of finishing activities begin. Why is it always the middle of the night that we arrive? I think we finished in almost exactly the same number of days when we crossed the Atlantic and also arrived in St. Lucia at around 3 am. Another mystery to be solved later.
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