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June 8, 2000
Tarawa to Solomon Islands voyage, Update #11
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 23:34:00 -0700
Day 10
Wind ESE 1/4 E 5-10 knots
Heading 210 Magnetic
Since leaving Tarawa we've been hitting up some record daily mileages - 60, 65 even 70 miles one day - putting us well ahead of schedule for arriving in the Solomon's. At this rate we should be passing the northern tip of the island of Malaita in less than 8 days, assuming of course that the conditions remain kind to us and no sudden changes in wind and current direction occur at the last minute that would compromise the accuracy of our final approach.
I thought that perhaps the underlying ocean conditions had shifted this afternoon when the pedal cranks became noticeably harder to turn. While turning through my head the possible effects of the wind backing round the compass toward north on local current patterns, it was Chris who first clocked the real cause of the problem. Our beautiful golfing umbrella, carefully chosen from the hardware store on Betio, Tarawa for its yellow and black stripes to match xto provide shade to the cockpit area, it was now performing the function of a sail, catching the freshening easterly wind and effectively dragging us just north of due west.
Nothing else really happened of interest today, apart from emptying my morning porridge into Chris' sleeping bag. A little secret something for him to snack on later tonight when he gets peckish.
Jason & Chris,
The Moksha motors
Posted on June 8, 2000 6:13 AM