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February 25, 2007

Half Way!

LOCATION: Arabian Sea Crossing
Day: 26
SEE WHERE WE ARE!
Longitude: N:15°18.103'
Latitude: E: 058°13.467'
Heading: 240°M
Wind: ENE, Force: 1-2
Miles total Mumbai - Djibouti: 1,856
Miles from Mumbai: 941
Miles to Djibouti: 915

This afternoon we crossed the half way mark, a welcome milestone in any voyage. With 928 miles under our belts we have the same to go before making landfall on African shores in around 20 days' time.

Originally we were expecting this point to come alot earlier in the voyage but the conditions have been less favourable than anticipated with the typical northeasterlies (wind) for this time of year only kicking in this past week, and then only at a lower force than predicted by historical data. So its been a real sweat-fest with each mile gained with little or no assistance from any external forces of nature. On previous voyages across the north Atlantic and Pacific oceans that have involved traveling in the trade winds belts it is usual to attribute up to 20% of one's daily mileage from the wind, current and action of the waves. But on this voyage we've had only one day when the wind was force 3 at our stern and we managed notched up the original estimate of 50 miles (of which 10 could be said to be thanks to the wind). The mileage on all other days has been ground out by muscle power alone, which at least keeps our conscience clear as to the authenticity of this voyage as a human powered one!

The watermaker disintegrated for the umpteenth time today. At first it looked like this was at last the end of the line for the poor thing. We've babied it along for almost two weeks now since the initial failure and we thought it might even make it to Djibouti (although the prospect of having to come good on my promise to dance the fandango in my birthday suit upon arrival was starting to worry me a little). But just as we were about the stash it away for good and commit ourselves to rationing out the remaining 160 litres for the remainder of the voyage we noticed one last piece of metal on the boat that could be used for a repair. The two brass name plaques of the major donors that contributed to the initial construction of the boat had already been used, leaving the final name plaque for the Moksha herself.

It seemed a little sacrilegious to be drilling holes in something so integral to the identity of this craft that has weathered so many thousands of miles of open ocean and survived so many near misses over the years, including almost sinking in Morro Bay, California in 1997, and being wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland in 2000. But as Steve once said, "At the end of the day she's just a boat". While Moksha can do without her name plaque for a few weeks, us humans certainly cannot do the same without water. So even with Sher's protestations ringing in my ears that I was committing some cardinal sin there was little absolutely zero doubt in my mind that this was the right thing to do.

jason

Posted on February 25, 2007 1:57 PM

Comments

Posted by: Darcia at February 26, 2007 3:37 PM