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Exody - Day 421: Sunset over Suriname



The orange glow to the west in the cloudless sky lingered long after the stars were sparkling.

The day had started dramatically at 02.30 with another glow to the west. Orange first shining brightly behind a cloud. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong colour for the sun or moon, too massive for a flare. It burst above the cloud and streaked across the night sky with a long red tail, splitting into two distinct fireballs. It turned out to be a rocket launched from an EU range in French Guyana. So I was told by Caspar of Aretha on the VHF. They, along with Makena and Hugur had shared the sight. Hugur also saw burning material fall into the sea nearby - so the World ARC fleet were lucky to miss the fiery jettisoned components!

Our day's run of 207 was the first to break the 200 barrier, albeit assisted by over 2 knots of current on average! Six days and 1100 miles into the leg, we have averaged just over 7.5 knots and reckon we have had total current 'lift' so far of nearly 200 miles. Today we crossed the 'border' between French Guyana and Suriname, our rhumb line now taking us offshore across the long bight in the south american mainland towards Tobago.

It was a superb day at sea with fantastic clarity of light, clear sunny skies, benign seas and sufficient wind to keep us moving along sweetly along with the equatorial current. We were treated to a visit by a large pod of large dolphins, gambling playfully for about an hour at our bow. Exody now gliding effortlessly upwind, hatches open, over an almost flat sea at over seven knots with less than ten knots of wind. We dined in the cockpit ending a memorable day at sea.

ETA Grenada Sunday 13th morning

Peter (Skipper)





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