Around-n-Over - Dispatches

I rolled out an extra solar panel on the deck.

A pod of sperm whales about 100 meters away, plumes in the air.

Pace dropped
November 21, 2011 - Day 43 11.2778S,3.3716W
I was moving along at about 35 nautical miles per day until a week ago when I received some easterly winds followed by southerlies which made a mess of the seas. I periodically receive swells from the third quadrant (west to south) as weather systems move west to east in the roaring forties. Over the last few days, the combination of winds, swells and wind waves old and new, have interacted to make the seas bumpy and disorderly, hindering my progress. My overnight drift dropped to 5-7 nm versus 14-20 nm before. I row 10 hours a day to keep the boat on course yet I don't register much distance. Today I have SW swells which are just annoying as ever!

I hope to pick up the pace again once in the better defined westerly equatorial current between 5S-5N latitudes.

The other day on the 17th, I got out of the cabin and saw mist hanging in the air aft of me port side. It took a moment for it to sink in and I immediately reached for my camcorder and camera. I was looking at a pod of a dozen whales spaced between 50-100 meters from my boat. They were not in a hurry, moving in a northeasterly direction. They were soon to my east with increasing glare behind them, so I had a hard time with details. They looked grey colored, their plume dispersed quickly in the wind at a 45-degree angle and they did not show their flukes at any time. There was not a distinct dorsal fin, instead a wedge shaped hump near the blow hole. The visible section of the whales was about 7-8 meters; I guessed the overall size to be about 12-15 meters. With this much information and given the location of my sighting, our whale experts believe that these were very likely sperm whales.

By the time I stopped capturing footage and began taking pictures, the pod was too far away. To the right is a cropped image of the pod. They sure made my day!

I am officially sick of the clouds. When the winds were blowing from the south, I got three days with sun between 11 am to 3 pm which helped. I laid a roll out solar panel on the deck to add to my roof top panels. I was told that the clouds begin to disperse between 5S-10S.

Erden.

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CHARITY:

The tax year will conclude at the end of December. Any contributions by those residing in the United States to help the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Around-n-Over can be claimed as tax-deductions.

Please remember to pass on the word for our fundraising efforts to build additional classrooms at the Mateves Secondary School in Arusha, Tanzania. Around-n-Over has already transferred 6,000 USD toward this cause. The team will later report on the foundations laid, walls built...

This fundraising effort will continue through December 2011. All unrestricted donations that we receive through the rest of the year will be applied to this cause. More information is available on our Projects and Score Card pages. Your friends can contribute using the Support Us link in the left margin.

Funds that you provide will help us erect the total number of classrooms sooner. We will provide an accounting of all funds received and applied, effective the end of 2011, though this accounting may have to wait until after my landfall.
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