Underway to Dakar Senegal Wed Dec 31,08

Wed Dec 31,08

My night watch last night had some excitement to liven things up. I was on helm and we were sailing on
the port tack around 1:30pm with all square sails set, spanker and inner and outer jibs. Then the wind
dropped away to almost nothing. In another minute it came back from the opposite tack ,blowing and
gusting much stronger than it had been. The rest of the watch took in the spanker and royals while I tried
to keep the ship steady. It was tough, it took a lot of turns to get her to respond then when she did she
would take off so I had to correct fast. Exciting and frightening at the same time.

After the sails were adjusted and I finally got her back on course I was relieved at helm by Bruce.

Adrenaline works wonders for ones reflexes and man did I have lots of that! It was hard keeping track of where the wheel was relative to midships. It takes 8 full turns to go from midships to hard over so one has
to always be counting the turns to be able to get her straight once she starts to turn. I’m still learning how
to handle this beautiful ship, and it is still scary to have control of all 200 tons of her like that.

The rest of the watch was uneventful, thankfully.

There will be a Marlinspike of sorts tonight to celebrate New Years Eve and hopefully we will have our
ball drop ready. It is grey and cloudy at the moment so not sure what it will be like tonight.

More later…

It’s later and I’m getting ready to catch a few hours sleep before the action starts around 10:00pm.
We are definitely in the tropics now, we have steady NE Tradewinds blowing and I saw my first school of
flying fish this afternoon while I was aloft on the foremast. Trade Winds, Flying Fish and a landfall in
West Africa possibly as early as tomorrow, what a way to start 2009!

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to all.

May 2009 be a good one for you and your loved ones.
Bright Blessings
KJ

P.S. The Ball dropped right on schedule last night!

We ended up with a low windage version because rather than wrap it in tinfoil we used garlands and
Christmas lights around it as well. Everybody came on deck about 10:30. Munchies and popcorn was
set out. I supplied a nut cake I got in Switzerland, thanks to Ursula and Francois.

At 30 seconds to midnight the countdown started and the ball was dropped down to the hatch cover. At
the stroke of twelve shouts of Happy New Year rose up and the ships horn blasted out into the tropical
night. There followed dancing and revelry until 1:30am when we set the sails and carried on.

Last night was the first nightwatch that I didn’t have to wear a coat until I went on lookout. A sign of
things to come I hope.

Happy New Year!

I hope 2009 is a good one.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Here are pictures of our New Years Eve festivities on the main hatch.

2014 Postscript
One thing I did not mention above but that sticks in my memory was the sight of a cargo ship all lit up steaming past us just after midnight. I've always wondered what they thought of us, if they even saw us.