Friday, November 06, 2009

Land in zicht!

It is now 0437 UTC and we are on our final stretch into Banjul. We are treated to a flat sea with 23 knots of wind so we are bumming along at 7 knots in the moonlight. Our plan is to drop anchor south of Banjul off the wooden jetty. Our ETA at the moment is 0852 UTC.

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Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Rough Seas and a Good Rhythm


Picture yourself sitting in a small capsule in your washing machine during a combined rinse and spin cycle and you come quite close to the feeling that we experienced for the first 48 hours of our passage to The Gambia. Winds were averaging 25 knots most of the time with gusts up to 30 knots and although the wind was from behind the waves were big and confused and thus very uncomfortable. In addition to this Seb and I were both feeling a little seasick and Macsen was unable to keep anything down for more than 30 seconds (although in between bouts he remained remarkably cheerful). The weather was warm and sunny during the day but that helped little to break the seemingly endless discomfort and monotony. Eating or drinking anything other than crackers and water was out of the question (except for Emma who retained a healthy appetite), sitting was uncomfortable, sleeping was uncomfortable and walking about was either entertaining or painful depending upon how careful we were. The only positive point was that we were speeding along at a good pace and we averaged 150 nautical miles per day.

It is now day three of our 880 nautical mile voyage and we have just crossed the border of Western Sahara (Morocco) with Mauritaniyah roughly 70 miles offshore. Things have returned to normal. The seas are calmer and we have developed a bit of a rhythm. As such, between naps and meals, we play fun little activities such as building a fort, singing lessons, ping pong Macsen (in which Macsen runs back and forth giggling between Seb and I), face painting, Pjotter crazy dance disco and going for a 'walk' and having a picnic ( ie. eating cookies on the deck, wearing life jackets and life lines of course).

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