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August 3, 2000
Solomons to Australia voyage - Update #16
Lat/Long as of 15.10 hrs local time
12 degs 55. 92’ S
151 degs 58. 96’E
Day 17. Wind ESE 20 knots. Heading 200
After a few hours of calmer seas yesterday in which we managed to claw back around 10 of our hard earned southerly miles, the wind kicked back up and it was back to business as usual again: big seas and zero headway being made towards Cairns. It’s cruel. From the surface it looks as if we’re making good progress – Moksha slicing through the water at a fair clip like she normally would. But what lies hidden from the eye is the whole ocean moving northwest (at approximately 1-2 knots would be my guess for us to remain at a standstill).
How long we can go on like this is a question April and I asked ourselves earlier on today. With various key factors involved such as April making it back to school in time, the wear and tear on the pedal units (of which two have popped their clogs already) and on ourselves from pedaling against the grain for so long, and not least our mental fortitude to keep going with no end in sight, we started discussing alternative plans of how to get our feet to dry land. If nothing else it’s given our minds something definitive to chew over today during our respective shifts to replace the nebulous space we’ve been in these past days. We decided to give it another 24-48 hours to see if the conditions changed at all in our favour and potentially adopt a different strategy if they hadn’t. This would make it a week of pedaling with no progress made: a record for all Moksha voyages.
One event perked up the day for a bit – the Birds (Mick and Stacia) popping by for their daily visit. Click today’s video update and check out how Mick gets on attempting to land on Moksha’s bow…
Jason
Posted on August 3, 2000 2:37 PM