Over Half Way
22 May 2008 | Coral Sea
John
Thursday morning, and finally the swell has dropped back sufficiently for us to cook, clean, and simply relax, read and write without being catapulted across the main cabin into the nearest hard and/or sharp object by rough seas. The swells are now down to about 1.5 m, and the cross swells have minimised. Things will undoubtedly improve further as the high pressure system extends out into the Coral Sea today and tomorrow. We have been getting weather faxes and text forecasts via the Buoyweather company and also Sailmail GRIB files: so we haven't had anything come at us weatherwise that was unexpected. Having GPS units, laptops and instant access to voice forecasts and fax weather charts makes one so awestruck at the skill and courage of the early navigators who blazed trails with only their own personal skills and very basic instrumentation. "Destiny" has handled the conditions well this week, and with our big freezer and refrigeration units, we aren't missing out on much in the way of home comforts. Today it's settled sufficiently for us to troll a line in the water as we go along and hopefully we can get fresh a dorado or wahoo for dinner. We are looking at landfall in New Caledonia on the weekend if conditions are suitable, as they look like being. Maybe late Saturday...