JesseMartin.Net
31st August 1999
FIFTEEN knots of wind, moving along at four knots with the sun glistening off the water. What could be better you ask? Well, how about if I was going in the right direction!
For the past four days I've had easterly winds, making progress very slow as I can only point 30 or 150 degrees.
To add insult to injury, I finished my last bag of food this week and have been living off damper. A few quick calculations tell me that about two weeks before I arrive home, all the flour will have run out, forcing me to eat the stuff I don't like. Even more reason to get home quick.
If only the wind would turn around!
I've already made up my mind about what I'd like as soon as I cross the finishing line - two Danish pastries from the local bakery, a bottle of drink and one of those huge hamburgers where you need a skewer to hold it together.
On the 26th it was my 18th birthday. I spoke to my friends but other than that it was just a normal day. In fact, I nearly forgot about it.
I was outside tying the genoa down and when I came back into the cabin the orange light was on, indicating an awaiting e-mail. It was from mum telling me that it was 12.15am at home and that I was now 18. Talk about a shock - one minute you're a kid tying down a genoa, the next you're allowed to vote!
I'm not usually one for poems, but this one which Romy Schurrmans found for my birthday is one I can appreciate:
There comes a time in life when there is nothing else to do but to go your own way.
A time to follow your dreams, a time to raise the sails of your own beliefs.
Where you are headed there are no trails, no paths just your instinct.
You have followed the omens and have finally arrived.
Well, I've got to follow that omen and raise a bit more of that sail if I'm to munch on any hamburger this side of Christmas! Let's hope the wind turns around as well.