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| Day 95 |
10 July 2000 |
| South Coast of Irian Jaya |
| "Life in the Slow Lane" |
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For the last two and a half days we have been tacking along the
Irian Jaya coast. Our tactics are as ancient as the ship. We
close with the land in the evenings, then tack at night and
stand out to sea until mid-morning, when we tack again to sail
back towards the land in the afternoon and evening. The idea is
to make best use of any fluctuations in the wind direction due
to the sea-breeze effect. While the sea temperature remains
fairly constant, the land heats up in the day, sucking the wind
towards it, and cools down at night, tending to blow the air
back out to sea. This technique has been used by sailors at
least since they began recording what they were up to.
Unfortunately there does not seem to be much sea breeze effect
here. In two and a half days we have progressed about twenty
miles along the coast, our zigs barely separated from our zags.
This is only a third of the rate we need to reach the
Pennefather River on the 9th of August. We are waiting to jag a
lucky wind-shift.
We made an unpleasant discovery today when the gas bottle we
started using two days ago ran out. While we thought we had two
and a bit bottles left, we actually only have one and a bit to
last us four weeks. Our previous rate of consumption had us just
squeaking into Queensland with not much to spare, but that was
before we made our unpleasant discovery. Now we know we will
have to cut down our gas consumption drastically if we are not
to run out. No more boiling the kettle for tea and coffee. Jane
will have to cook much more conservatively also. We might still
run out.
But this is really pleasant. We have beautiful mountains to look
at, the sea is relatively smooth, the wind is just the right
strength for Duyfken to carry her full wardrobe of sails, and
the sun has been shining more in the last two days than it has
for a month. We even had a pod of whales to admire from a
distance, lazily cruising along, blowing fountains of steam
every few minutes. What more could we want?
...besides a lucky wind-shift?
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Peter Manthorpe
Master
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