From: OmanTri
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:31:01 -0000
To: update
Subject: Day 71 – Friday 20th March

Distance to go — 1001nm


By the time you read this we will be less than 1000nm to go

I must say this is an update i thought at one stage i’d never write, and
that day 71’s food bag was one that we’d only unpack in the storage container after our arrival.
For a good portion of this trip we have been on schedule for a 70 day
circumnavigation. The doldrums have decided that won’t be the case. We are
now approx 5 days ahead of the 80 day pace boat which should indicate a
75day circumnavigation, however one final fence to jump – an area of high
pressure centered 200nm off the Oman coast will have to be tackled. We must
sail around it’s western side before turning North, into the oman coast
somewhere around Sharbatat or Mukhsayr, and heading NE towards Ras Al Hadd –
the final corner of our trip – 100nm from the finish in Muscat. These final
miles will be familiar miles as it’s the same as our delivery last autumn,
the winds should be quite different however with some moderate downwind
conditions leading us to suspect a quick finish to this last 2 weeks of slow
going.

More thunderstorms yesterday during the day, before a reletively quiet
night. The thunderstorms were a nasty reminder of our time in the
doldrums – with a period where we were stuck in 5-6kts of wind, but from
every direction – the wind swirling around, followed by that wind being
crushed by another torrential rain downpour, and finally the true gradient
winds returning from the NE and putting us on our way again. Although
overnight we had a few random clouds we were never threatened with the
lightening storms or ‘odd winds’

Everyone is a little tired now, the excitement of being close to arriving
not injecting adrenelin, but still the brain knows we are nearly at the end.
We can see it on the chart – mapped out in days ahead of us, every time we
make it to a waypoint on time we are grateful that our current predictions
are correct.

Yet another glorious sunrise today, and Mohsin is practicing his TV voice
for another live Oman TV moment – he loved the one he did the other day, as
it was very much a question/answer format rather than him having to say
what’s going on. It’s much easier and more natural when people as you
questions and you respond, where as onboard he has either to use some
scripted words, or answer questions from an english speaking examiner! He
was laughing on deck last night as he had been asked about the fish , and
the pictures of it have made the papers in Oman, and everyone thinks that
the fish is very big, as it’s nearly as big as Mohsin, but no one knows that
he is quite short!!

Hoochie and I had a ‘life on land’ conversation this morning, it’s going to
be strange having a load of options laid out infront of us, driving a car,
coming to a junction and being able to turn left or right, go to a shop and
buy anything or nothing, go to a restaurant and choose a variety of foods
from a menu. We couldn’t decide if we are going to be overawed by it, or
slip right back into the consuming consumers we were before. We’ll just have
to see…..