LTY UPDATE: Sunday, September 30th, 2012
Day #2 of passage from Vanuatu to Marshall Islands LTY time: 16:300 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: 200nm NNE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Position: 12 40.495 S, 168 21.196 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 22-28kts ESE
Seas/Swell: 3m ESE
Weather: Sunny for most of the day now clouding over again
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 92 F 33.4 C
Barometer: 1018nm LIVING LIFE in AWE Not too much new to report on this second day of the passage as conditions continue mostly as they were last night. The wind has been strong and steady throughout continuing to run between 22-28kts out of the ESE and the seas are now running in trains about 3m deep. Earlier today I changed course from about 28 to 15 degrees to head a bit more directly north. This was in part to help reduce the rolling over the large waves that are coming at me sideways as well as because I've made some good easting being over 168 degrees East and I can pretty much count on low wind conditions up on either side of the equator where it will be easy to get more there. So right now I'm headed on a relatively straight line course aimed at the east side of the Majuro atoll. I'll adjust as the winds and currents dictate but I should be able to stay reasonably close to this and thus have the shortest route. Day #2 is typically the transition day of a passage where you make the transition into the new rhythm of life at sea for a continuous time. Being a single hander in particular where I just sleep in short naps or "snaps" as I call them, time kind of blends together into a more consistent continuum when it isn't broken up into sleeping and waking time as is our norm. For me it is a very special state of existence. I live a very "quantified" life in that I have a great deal of "data" that I'm constantly taking in such as all the environmental conditions of wind, waves, sky, stars, moon, boat motion, sails, temperatures and all the data of running a boat with all its many systems. When you consider that I truly am a floating "city" out here in that I generate pretty much everything on board from water to electricity, communications and sewage. Out here there is no "they" to call, I'm it! It is part of what I love about this life and out on a passage I am totally immersed in this self-reliant world. Cumulatively this results in my being extraordinarily and deeply connected to everything around me. It is like I've got the whole world jacked into my nervous system and brain. It is a very visceral experience as well as a very cognitive one and as with my description of time these too seem to blend together and result in this most amazing existence that you truly have to experience to understand. I'm not doing it justice I'm sure in trying to describe it to you and I know many of you have told me that you are glad it is me experiencing and not you! But for me this is some of the most special experiences I have ever had and I am settling into enjoying this latest one fully. It has been mostly overcast and cloudy for the trip so far but last night for a few hours the clouds cleared away in much of the night sky and allowed the full moon to do its magical dance over the water. With the waves being quite large and the additional white caps from the winds it was a wondrous sight to behold. The different night light provides Mother Nature with an entirely new set of colours with which to paint the very three dimensional canvas of the sea and sky and I stood out on the aft deck for a long time just taking it all in, savouring the moments as they flowed by and appreciating the beauty I am immersed in. Not to be out done by the night, daytime produced a series of rainbows as the sun broke through and with the great expanse of 360 degrees of watery and cloudy horizon I'm surrounded by I had rainbows behind me for several hours. How fitting as one of the books I'm reading today is Richard Dawkins "Unweaving the Rainbow" with his great subtitle; "Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder" I often describe my life as living in constant AWE; Adventure, Wonder and Excitement and I hope you can see how appropriate that is given just this short snapshot of the last 24 hours. To the best of my recollection I've always lived and thought this way and I'm just constantly working to appreciate and learn more from it each day so as to never lose and only increase my wonder and awe of this amazing experience called life.
Day #2 of passage from Vanuatu to Marshall Islands LTY time: 16:300 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: 200nm NNE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Position: 12 40.495 S, 168 21.196 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 22-28kts ESE
Seas/Swell: 3m ESE
Weather: Sunny for most of the day now clouding over again
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 92 F 33.4 C
Barometer: 1018nm LIVING LIFE in AWE Not too much new to report on this second day of the passage as conditions continue mostly as they were last night. The wind has been strong and steady throughout continuing to run between 22-28kts out of the ESE and the seas are now running in trains about 3m deep. Earlier today I changed course from about 28 to 15 degrees to head a bit more directly north. This was in part to help reduce the rolling over the large waves that are coming at me sideways as well as because I've made some good easting being over 168 degrees East and I can pretty much count on low wind conditions up on either side of the equator where it will be easy to get more there. So right now I'm headed on a relatively straight line course aimed at the east side of the Majuro atoll. I'll adjust as the winds and currents dictate but I should be able to stay reasonably close to this and thus have the shortest route. Day #2 is typically the transition day of a passage where you make the transition into the new rhythm of life at sea for a continuous time. Being a single hander in particular where I just sleep in short naps or "snaps" as I call them, time kind of blends together into a more consistent continuum when it isn't broken up into sleeping and waking time as is our norm. For me it is a very special state of existence. I live a very "quantified" life in that I have a great deal of "data" that I'm constantly taking in such as all the environmental conditions of wind, waves, sky, stars, moon, boat motion, sails, temperatures and all the data of running a boat with all its many systems. When you consider that I truly am a floating "city" out here in that I generate pretty much everything on board from water to electricity, communications and sewage. Out here there is no "they" to call, I'm it! It is part of what I love about this life and out on a passage I am totally immersed in this self-reliant world. Cumulatively this results in my being extraordinarily and deeply connected to everything around me. It is like I've got the whole world jacked into my nervous system and brain. It is a very visceral experience as well as a very cognitive one and as with my description of time these too seem to blend together and result in this most amazing existence that you truly have to experience to understand. I'm not doing it justice I'm sure in trying to describe it to you and I know many of you have told me that you are glad it is me experiencing and not you! But for me this is some of the most special experiences I have ever had and I am settling into enjoying this latest one fully. It has been mostly overcast and cloudy for the trip so far but last night for a few hours the clouds cleared away in much of the night sky and allowed the full moon to do its magical dance over the water. With the waves being quite large and the additional white caps from the winds it was a wondrous sight to behold. The different night light provides Mother Nature with an entirely new set of colours with which to paint the very three dimensional canvas of the sea and sky and I stood out on the aft deck for a long time just taking it all in, savouring the moments as they flowed by and appreciating the beauty I am immersed in. Not to be out done by the night, daytime produced a series of rainbows as the sun broke through and with the great expanse of 360 degrees of watery and cloudy horizon I'm surrounded by I had rainbows behind me for several hours. How fitting as one of the books I'm reading today is Richard Dawkins "Unweaving the Rainbow" with his great subtitle; "Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder" I often describe my life as living in constant AWE; Adventure, Wonder and Excitement and I hope you can see how appropriate that is given just this short snapshot of the last 24 hours. To the best of my recollection I've always lived and thought this way and I'm just constantly working to appreciate and learn more from it each day so as to never lose and only increase my wonder and awe of this amazing experience called life.
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