Returning to civilisation

Jean-Luc van den Heede contemplates

Day 112.
Position at 1300: 11°44'N / 21°30'W
Wind 20 knots from NNE. Moderate sea.
Temperatures: day 28°C / night 16°C / sea 25°C
Distance covered in the last 24 hours: 229 miles.
To the finish 2,826 miles.
Lead over Monnet: 24 days and 11 hours.

Hi there,

I'm making my way back to civilisation and the urgent warnings to those at sea are far from encouraging. Four containers and some red and yellow tubes are floating around on the route I shall be taking as I enter the Bay of Biscay.

It's at times like these that I'm happy to be sleeping in an aluminium hull! I can still remember the accident that happened during my first trip around the world to Smith, an American, who had a magnificent boat made of plywood. We were in the middle of the Atlantic, alongside each other at nightfall... and several hours later his boat sank in just a few minutes, when the hull was ripped open by the corner of a container that he only just managed to see ...from his bunk. He got out of it by the skin of his teeth, but he lost everything, as like me, he wasn't insured. Insurance companies aren't too keen to take on round the world sailors!

I'm now making headway and beginning to make up the two and a half days I lost around the Equator. I'll be crossing the latitude of Dakar tomorrow, and will be thinking of the people, who work for the Adrien Group, which does a lot of work there. Then, I'll be a tourist enjoying the delights of the Cape Verde Islands. I hope a siren won't try to lure Adrien. If she does, I'll have to do like Ulysses. I'll tie myself to the mast!

See you on Sunday,

JL VDH

A day with the cuddly toy (a little blue lamb) from Pierre, who prepared my medical supplies...which I haven't had to use!