JesseMartin.Net
4th May 1999
MY great run has continued all this week and I've been averaging 140 nautical miles a day.
But lack of wind may hamper my goal of making the halfway point of my trip by the end of the week.
My weather adviser, Roger, has had to take me in a round-a-bout way to get to the Azores because of a high pressure system which sits nearly on top of them.
I was hoping to see my family at the Azores Islands in a little over a week, but because of the high pressure system it could be another two weeks.
This system hardly moves . . . until I'm in the vicinity. After weeks of being stationary, the high has decided to ridge out in front of my path and hamper the momentum which was building up.
Today has been the first day of light winds and I hate it. I don't mind so much slowing down but I despise the sound of the sails back winding and sending a shudder through the rig.
It is like sandpaper on my nerves. I know that each time I hear the crack and the stays vibrate that it is more stress on the rig and more chance of the whole mast coming down in a time of chaos.
I have finally spotted the Pole Star. I double checked that it really was the one by measuring its angle to the horizon and comparing it with our latitude according to the global positioning system.
They came up close enough, so I was satisfied.
I had a shock a couple of nights ago when I spotted the first ship since before the equator.
I got up after an hour's sleep and stepped up the companion way steps when I saw, to my horror, a huge tanker with all its lights blazing only a couple of hundred metres behind my boat.
It was heading at right angles to my course and I hate to think what would have happened if it hadn't been a full moon to light up my sails because I have a feeling he dodged me.
I was too scared to turn on the radio in case he was there abusing me for not keeping a better watch. I swore from then on that the radar would be keeping watch full-time while I was in any part of this busy Atlantic.
I received a question from Amy Ginsburg from Mount Scopus Primary School.
Amy was wondering what I sleep on and if it is a proper bed.
I sleep on a seat which runs along the starboard side of Lionheart.
It's about a metre wide and I have a sheet which comes from under the cushion and ties to the roof to hold me in so that when Lionheart rolls, I don't end up on the floor.