If only we'd had weather this good on the other side of North America. We'd originally banked on arriving in St John's in the early hours of Sunday morning, but our progress is so good, we get in a good deal earlier, on Saturday night.
Out at sea, the temperature is nothing much to write home about. We don our thermal underwear and put on an extra layer of clothing in anticipation of chilly conditions. So we're rather surprised to see Egbert Walters on the quayside waiting to meet us, wearing nothing more than T-shirt and shorts. Surely the Newfies aren't that impervious to cold? No, it's us. It is in fact quite warm here, and we're just a tinge overdressed.
We met Egbert last year when he helped out with the stop during our Transatlantic Challenge. His grandfather came from Cardiff, so he has a real interest in the project's Welsh connection. He's even postponed leaving on his holiday in order to be here for us. Thanks, Egbert, we really appreciate everything you've done for us.
The local Quality Inn has offered us the use of a conference room with ensuite bathroom so we can have a clean up. But since we can't refuel until Sunday morning, we decide to utilise the rest of the facilities, bringing our sleeping bags so we can doss on the floor.
St John's certainly seems a lively place on a Saturday night. We gravitate to an Irish bar, testing the quality of the Guinness, along with some splendid steak and kidney pie. Later on, in another bar, I discover that Yamaha don't just make world-beating marine diesel engines, but excellent musical instruments as well. I find myself accompanying the bar's resident guitarist on a rather fine five-string Yamaha bass guitar.
As we leave St John's on the mid-ocean leg of our Atlantic crossing, the weather is a good deal more promising than it was last year, when everybody thought us insane for leaving the harbour. There was the possibility that we might have had a depression to contend with some time in the next 24 hours or so, but even that has had the good grace to move out of our way.
Now we have just one more refuelling stop before we complete our circumnavigation of the world. So it's goodbye North America - next stop Europe!
Clive Tully
FACTBOX
Halifax - St John's
Time of leg: 1 day 3 hours 36 minutes
Length of leg: 501 nautical miles
Total distance covered: 23,111 nautical miles
Distance to go: 2,300 nautical miles
Average speed over leg: 18.15 knots
Total elapsed time from Gibraltar: 97 days 14 hours 06 minutes
Total elapsed time at sea: 73 days 20 hours 11 minutes
Fuel consumed: 1,012 litres
Average fuel consumption: 2.02 litres / nautical mile
Number of refuelling stops to go: 1
Next stop: Horta, Azores
ETA: Wednesday
Copyright Clive Tully ©2002
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