You can really tell the weekend is over. It's Monday, no lollygagging around, we are back
to the business of sailing. Even the wind showed up early for work this morning. I would
not say wind is eager about it but we put the Genoa out at 6 AM and Bella Donna reported
to work at 7.8 to 8.1 knots. It sure was nice to hear her cutting through the water as the
sails started to pull. Hiho Hiho it's off to work we go. Fisherman is not in our job
description today. We need to eat to make room for more fish in the fridge.
Today we come close to making good an important milestone; we will have sailed 4,000
nautical miles since leaving the BVI on April 14th and we will have 1,000 nautical miles
remaining to anchor in Tahauku Bay where the town/village on Hiva Oa Island is located in
the Marquises Islands, not that we are counting. Oh, that will make approximately 30,000
nautical miles since Bella Donna was launched in France. Realize that a nautical mile is
one degree of latitude. Therefore, 1 nautical mile is 1.2 statute miles, the miles we use
in our car. Thus 4,000 is really 4,800 statute miles, 1000 is 1,200 and 30,000 is 36,000;
we aren't counting, just taking each day as it comes. A circumnavigation of the world is
from 30,000 to 36,000 nautical miles; we will have done 1/6th to 1/7th of our
circumnavigation assuming we finish in the BVI.
Last night at dinner there was a table discussion of the significance of the milestone in
the great scheme of things. Does this milestone rank up there with crossing the equator
and if it does are we going to celebrate in the typical nautical way, a drink (just one).
I don't think it is at the level requiring an initiation ceremony, besides there is no one
qualified on board to perform the initiation ceremony. Let's just say we need an excuse to
have one sundowner. Well it looks like Wednesday at sundown if at all.
We need a break from all the measuring. What day and hour are we going to arrive? How much
fuel does the engine at 1800 RPM, the big generator and little generator use per hour?
Exactly how many minutes are left until sundown? Please quantify the difference between
warm ice (ice machine) and cold ice (freezer)? There seems to be a lot of free time to
decide how to spend it at sea. We are probably going to arrive Monday very late or Tuesday
next week unless there is a weather or equipment failure to deal with. I have no idea how
much fuel is consumed; I just know we have enough with a safety margin. The sun can't set
soon enough as it was hot today and I am a little sunburned. John uses his laser radiation
gun to measure the surface temperature of ice in our warm ice maker it is 26°F, in the
fridge freezer ice is 3°F. If you take a cube out of freezer and walk up to the salon the
surface temperature rises to 7°. It seems clear the surface and interior temperature of
freezer ice has more capacity to absorb heat energy from a drink before melting. This
still is a long way from quantifying the difference. All I know for sure is warm ice melts
much faster. My brain is tired; I think I will take a nap.
The day ends peacefully.
God Bless Bella Donna.
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