SailBlog

A front moved through last night into this morning, so it was a night of crashing along hard. I don't know if it is because I am now at that magic latitude of 40*S or just this day, but the temperature is just colder again... there are blue skies but brisk winds. And the blessed sun has helped, I am sure, my spirits seem appropriate today. I am nearly smiling and hopeful though my energy is still so low... but better. We are making good progress and though there are tree successive fronts in the next week, the centers are all staying below 40*S ... It is going to be another gauntlet week as the winds just back and clock, back and clock, back and clock... but the winds all have some west component...my course though is a SSE course, so even a SW breeze is on the beam...with the seas... but so far, the seas have remained all within safe levels where the fear of any real broaches is very unlikely...I am hoping to find it stays that way.

There is a huge high developing in the Aussi Bight west of the Bass Straits which is also helping to divert the strongest winds in the frontal centers south of Tasmania, instead of running over it as we saw last week... So IS and I are feeling very blessed and your prayers are being heard..keep praying and sending great energy fields for moderate winds...!! THANK YOU ALL.

I spent a little time today hashing out the numbers to try to get a feel for an ETA (estimated time of arrival) at Cape Horn. I used several different scales of progress... I have the distance in nautical miles from Hobart TAsmania to Cape Horn on my world routes chart... 5576nm... I will be near Hobart in approx 2 weeks. So if I continue to average between 100nm and 120nm a day, it wil take 47-57 days...putting me past the Cape February 20th.

NOw if I use the distance 5576nm and divide it by the number of degrees between Hobart and Cape Horn, I find that a degree of longitude at 45*S, the primary longitude used in that passage, is only 38.5nm... Now if I go by the number of degrees in progress I have been making, That suggests that I should do 2 1/2 to 3 degrees a day at that length... and that makes it take 70 days from where i am now to get to Cape Horn, around February 19th again.

If I use my last trip as a scale of progress.. It will take 47 days from the time I pass NZ ETA January 3rd... putting me at the Cape again, not far from February 20th...

So this is what the brain does when it is anxious about making headway and wanting each way to say I will be there sooner.... and they all get me there pretty near the same time..there was one way I looked at with a slower average pace that is the latest I should be there and that was March 10th...

So from Cape Horn...again if I use my last trip as a guide...it is 2 months to the East Caribbean and two weeks to home from there. So... My overall guestimate was for a 270 day trip... I have been expecting it to be about a 40 week trip and that would get me home on May 1st... So if I make Cape Horn by February 20th... I won't be far off... it may take a bit longer...which truthfully, will allow the spring season to ripen a bit.

An interesting bit of trivia.. on my tracker that gives me my position a couple times a day...it also gives my elevation...I find it interesting that my elevation has been the deepest I have ever seen it.. I was 247ft below sealevel yesterday... And i am also at the point in the world where the polarity for magnetic variation is about to reverse itself, going from a west deviation to an east...

Deviation comes from the variations in metals and other elements that effect magnetic fields...The world atomosheric scientists have evidently gone around the world comparing what a compass reads and what the actual bearing is to the north pole of magnetic forces and found that it varies ...well I posted a bit ago, that when i was at 65*E, it was the area with the largest variation in the world... 60*W near Antarctica, 50*W at 40*S where I was. magnetic variation all over the rest of the world varies in the ranges of 15-25* compared to this region at nearly 60*. It made it interesting to be steering by the compas when it is 'off' by so much and the variation was changing daily in that area..it was a very active magnetic region...so now... I am near the place where the polarity is going to reverse and I will now be off in the eastern direction... at 125*E..in a day or so.. So between 65*E and 125*E the variation changed 50*...nearly a degree of magnetic variation for a degree of longitude... 'Wow...!!

So it is interesting to me that in this same area the ocean water surface is actually below what is considered sea level by 247 feet...! I wonder if the gravitational pull is sucking the water toward the center of the earth? My Bob P... (not the meteorologist) is going to do some research..You can too..if you find anything out post it in te blog...Bob will be looking for it... Hey Cooper Postma...that might be a good project for you!!! I hear you are faithfuly keeping up with my travels..THANK YOU...that is so so cool.!!!

My writo formulate it all ing is coming along great...I feel like I am at the point now where my experiences are coming together and I will start into book format... I will still do the blogs as they will form the book from here forward...but it is time to start putting things together..

So If my blogs get shorter, which some of you may prefer...I do get long winded... it will be because I am spending more writing time on the editing, writing stages...

Life is as good as it can be on board... I am accepting the good with the hard... it is suppose to be hard... so 'by golly' it is. But not as hard as it has been in the past by a long stretch... I am feeling your energy and that I am blessed. Keepin On, Sailin On A Dream.... today I can look back with compassion for my child and will see what I can do to clear any old conclusions that are keeping me from being positive in the Now... " Each human life is a journey from childhood to a realized adult life. EAch day is a journey out of darkness into light. Each friendship and love is the intimate journey where the soul is born and grows. The journey is the heart's voyage into the tide of possibilities which open before it." John O'Donohue

Fairest of Winds and the Love of the Ocean Only Gratitude Donna

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