10-11-2011

Almost there… Just a little way still to go as each passing hour stretches longer. Just a mere 100 nautical miles left to sail out of the 6000 nautical miles leg from Darwin. But the wind had to torment me last night, whirling and shifting directions at 0 to 25 knots and now blowing straight on Guppy’s bow. The coast is near and yet so far away… Guppy is on a close tack, unfazed by the dark clouds and the shifting winds. Slowly, very slowly I realize that tomorrow South Africa will be in sight…I am already looking forward to a whole night of uninterrupted sleep in a bed that is not rocking, not salty and not soaking wet, and maybe a soothing and warm shower. Maybe too I can have something fresh to eat, meat or fish! I am usually not too keen on fish but after seven weeks without fresh food I would eat anything that is not spaghetti, rice or canned beans! But it is also true that I could have gone kept sailing for some more weeks. On the open sea, I did not care too much about our destination or how fast we were going, but now I am constantly checking our course and speed. I keep figuring my time of arrival, monitoring the ship traffic that increases by the minute, and watching the GPS and also the chart with more and more symbols, lines and figures for the area. The wind is not as the weather charts predicted, so for the first time in six weeks it really irritates me that we are slower than should be..

Laura