5-11-2011

ARGH! The wind really doesn’t know what it wants and keeps changing back and forth, either blowing strongly or not at all. So I had to be shown the whole gamut again. First there was a light wind that increased to a nice and strong breeze and ended being way too much… Hence last night it blew up to 30 knots at an angle from astern sending Guppy galloping ahead like a whipped horse. This morning it gradually faded away and morphed into a headwind until we had to sail on a close tack and in the wrong direction. Now I expect that it will calm down to almost nothing soon… There is only 800 nautical miles left to go, so I guess I should be ashore within a week! After six weeks at sea with the waves, the horizon and the clouds only, it will take some time before I get used to land again. But before that happens I already have to watch for all the boats that are now passing me regularly, mostly cargo ships and fishing boats. Yesterday as I was looking at the waves I spotted a noticeably higher foamy white crest between all the other ones and after looking at it carefully for a while… it became clear that it was a sail. As we got closer the boat appeared from under its sail and that is how I have met my very first sailboat since departing from Darwin. I joyfully jumped on the cabin’s roof and quickly ran inside to call it with the vhf-radio…nothing but silence. The hours went by until our boats became clearly visible to each other. Then suddenly I heard “crackle…crackle…sailing vessel…crackle” coming from the vhf-radio speaker. We’ve had a nice chat and I learnt that the boat approximately is about the same size as Guppy. and will have the same speed.. She is now sailing 40 nautical miles behind me… Well, it ain’t so easy to catch up to Guppy 😉

Laura