St Helena Inbound Day 11

Hi everyone,

We are currently in position 19 06S 000 34E and saillng at 6 knots on a course of 340M. The wind is ESE at 10-14 knots with a 1m leftover sea and 1.5m SW swell.  We are sailing under full main and single-furled yankee.  Overcast sky.  Our day's run was 141nm and we have 404nm to go.

We had a great sail yesterday afternoon under mostly sunny skies.  We are continuing to use Kazi the Aires vane gear.  She's been at the helm for a week now which is by far the longest period we've used her for.

Kazi in control

Last night clouds came through with light rain under them and a little more wind too.  We made quite good progress, reducing only the yankee and holding on to the full main.  Between the clouds we had a great view of the night sky.  Shortly before dawn I saw a satellite pass overhead.  It was very brightly lit by the sun and I tracked it all the way across the sky.  Quite spectacular.  It was moving N-S so I don't think it was the ISS.

This morning we had a brief period of sun and then clouds moved across.  When they first arrived we had 20+ knots of wind but once they were over us it dropped down to 8-10 knots.  Darn.

One thing we always do at sea is read.  Our iPads are full of books of all types.  One of my favourite genres is science fiction.  Recently I've read The Martian and Hal Spacejock.  Both sci-fi but entirely different.  The former has of course been made into a movie but the book is a great read.  Lots of good science and the main character has a marvellously dry sense of humour which really makes the book.  The latter is the funniest book I've read for a very long time.  The robot 'clunk' makes it.  The author is Western Australian.

Good Science with Dry Humour

Funniest Australian SciFi Ever?

You may need to be a science/engineer/IT type to like them as much as I.  The Martian is so good I'm going to read it again soon.  Hoping to understand some of the chemistry!  I also reread Arthur C Clarke's Rendevous With Rama.  IMHO a classic.

Sometime in the next 24 hours we expect to cross into the western hemisphere.  I feel a rum punch coming on, with a goodly share for King Neptune, God bless 'im.

Trust all's well where you are.