4/18/12

Noon Position: 41 11' S, 116 50' E, SOG 5.5, COG 095, Day's Run 121nm.
I'm still slowly cleaning up the aftermath from yesterday's fun. The
sun came out yesterday afternoon which let me start drying things out,
but then just before sunset a little wave splashed aboard and soaked
everything in the cockpit, so I'm back at it again today, a job
complicated by the rain squalls moving through every hour or two. I'm
still finding weird items in weird places, far removed from their points
of origin - the furthest (and weirdest) so far has been a dyneema soft
hank that I was building for the storm jib that I discovered on deck in
the stern this morning, far removed from its fellows sitting neatly on
the shelf by the mast down below. Very odd. The breeze is down and the
swell is starting to flatten out a bit, but every now and then a really
big set rolls through, 3 or 4 mountains progressing sedately eastwards,
enough that I have to gasp in admiration as I perch on one crest and
look down, down, then up and up again, some 200 yards astern, to where
the next peak blots out the horizon. I passed under Cape Leeuwin last
night as well - no big celebration, since that would seem to be asking
for trouble after such a fun morning, but my noon positions have now
moved from my chart of the Indian Ocean to one of South Australia! Even
more exciting, a day's run is now 3 or 4 inches on the chart instead of
1 to 1.5, which is immensely heartening - I was almost giddy with joy
plotting yesterday's and today's positions and seeing how far apart they
were. Even though it's just a trick of the scale, it's wonderful, makes
it seem like we're flying along after so many weeks of creeping across
vast oceans.