11 October 2010
It is a long time since we have had a beat to windward. By the early hours of the morning the wind filled in from the south west. It came as a surprise. The forecast had been for a southerly wind. We unfurled the main, the first time on this whole passage that we had used it. Off we went in a brisk force five. Now Voyageur dipped her bow and she romped over the waves. Neptune had looked kindly upon us for the sea was reasonably flat. Averaging between seven and a half to eight and a half knots our landfall on Monday was assured. Whoopee! Tzigane are about 60nm in front and I think a bit of a celebration is planned.
Our fist ship in over 2000nm showed up on the AIS. MSC Zambia was heading north east, bound for Singapore. Throughout the day the wind remained doggedly in the south west in spite of the weather guru forecasting a shift south. It was a hard beat windward, the winds having now kicked up a three metre swell. It was tiresome and tiring but as if by way of compensation the weather was quite exceptional. Blue, blue skies were dotted with trade wind clouds which hung all around. The ocean turned the most striking shade of violet. As the sun was going down, the light reflected off the Turkish Eye on Voyageur's pulpit. It flashed its message, "not long to go now, nearly there". A sliver of the new moon appeared, to be followed by the starriest night sky we have had the entire passage. We could not have asked for better finale. The wind dropped, the seas abated and Neptune was granted a pardon. At dawn we were rounding the group of northerly offlying islands before running down the west coast. The sun rose high. It held the promise of a glorious day to come.
Susan Mackay