Listen Up

Last night we sailed with just the main up, and it had two reefs in it. The wind was from the starboard quarter and the swells were from the south making the boat roll quite dramatically at times, with things clanking back and forth in lockers and in the sink. I altered our course slightly more to the north and the rolling settled, and so did I.

This morning as always I get up as soon as there's any light - at about 5am NZ time - and have a cup of tea and a bikkie. I was prepared to put up with rolling again so altered our course back to where I preferred it - heading east - and as I waited I realized the wind was slowly settling from gusts of 22 and 23 knots to gusts of 18 and less so I unrolled the headsail in dribs and drabs till eventually, after a couple of hours it was all out and we were making 6.5 knots and the rolling was minimal. And so it has continued all day, though as the wind dropped further I took one of the reefs out of the main.

Its been an especially good day really as the sun came right out and has been warming and drying and recharging everything on the boat, and I was able to take off my santa suit and relax in shorts and tea shirt - and the "never leave home without it " tether and harness.

Now I do need to remind people that I am not there yet. Many seem to think that now I've gone past half way, its just a matter of waiting for Sapphire to pull up at the Taxi stand in Tubuai! Well I still have over 600 miles of open ocean to get across, there are still some interesting weather predictions to deal with, and the work of keeping everything in order is undiminished as far as I am concerned. My experience of ocean sailing to date is that there is precious little opportunity for deep personal introspection and philosophical musing about ones identity and destiny - for me so far at least its been about sleeping feeding and worrying about whats happened or happening or about to happen! I do of course spend some hours every day wedged into a corner somewhere reading or just staring out into the ocean, and then I do turn over some of those more esoteric matters but I haven't found that being 1000 miles from the nearest bit of civilization and another human face seems to provide any special insight into my own predicament. Well not yet anyway. Shall keep you posted.

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