Sunday, March 6, 2011

North east south westerly winds

Yip,we are in the zone where the wind,or rather the breeze comes from
all directions,our wind instrument swinging around and around at
times.Closer to Africa the doldrums are at there widest,narrowing down a
bit closer to the Americas and then widening a little bit again closer
to those continents.A transitional phase we are going through.From
glassy smooth waters to a little bit of rodeo as small squalls comes
over and now then.Lightning up in the clouds at night looks like
explosions,lighting up a section here and a section there.The swell is
positively starting to build and rolling in from the northeast.Motoring
along at slow speed and waiting for the wind to assist our
progress.According to our grib weather files we can expect from the
northeast within 24 hrs.

Pieter lost his sealegs a little and the green monster surfaced,just
once so far,but the man is big,the man is strong.He is not green in a
bad way and hopefully he 's body will settle as soon as the swell
settles.Rodeo up and down,stop go stop go,not nice for anyone.But it
won't last forever.Pieter thought this is the way it could be for the
rest of the trip.If that was the case I told him I may consider going
back to Cape Town and try the other way 'round.No turning back
though,that would be even worse when we have to beat back to Cape
Town.We will probably take it for a while and turn back to Europe
again,and then back to Cape Town.Just stick around the doldrums it seems
till we run out of food,water and fuel.Long before that we will run out
patience though,even though we have an ample supply of that.

My tuna and potato bake mix went down just fine last night.Brad is
mixing dough.On the menu tonight...ta ta tra ta ta tra ta ta
ta.....burgers.Hamburgers!To you on land it may seem trivial,you can
have a burger just about anywhere anytime you like.Out here we have to
do the whole toot whoop whoop.We were just talking about Saul's Saloon
in Seapoint,Cape Town,where monster burgers are to be had.Brad is now
inspired to conjure up not only burgers,but fried onion rings and chips
as well.Watch out Spur,you have some serious competition.Thinking of
it,Wimpy burgers are great to as is Steers.I should stop,you may think
we are obsessing...ha ha ha.Torturing ourselves,good for body,soul and
spirit.Brad just added Mc Rib burgers to the equation,lets not go
there.I blame all this on the tuna we ate last night,Brain food.No we
are ghaving all these gastronomic fantasies.Enough of this.

Brad just aimed a potato that is not so good anymore at our tin hanging
outside,our fish alarm.He missed,again.I told him he should go and play
cricket for the Proteas.You can get in,as long as you are not better
than Greame Smith.Sorry boys,to hear that you lost,again.Well done
Sharks and to my team,the Stormers,very well done.To the Bulls,ya well
no fine.Not this time.You have to up your game a bit or get left behind.

To give you an idea of our present situation,our position @ PM 02:30 UTC
01*52'N/023*14'W.Distance still to go 3999nm.Speed at the moment 3 kts
motoring.Divide 3999 by 3 and again by 24 and we have 55 and a half days
to go at this speed.We hope to be there by April 10,about 34 days.So you
can see that we have great faith that the wind will pick up tomorrow and
send us on our merry way.Temperature 30*C,humidity 73%.

Hope your weekend was a good one.

Taking it easy

Paul

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