— I saw a coconut floating past! the captain reported after coming back from the deck. — Wow! Now it is definitely the tropics!
And to mark the occasion, at 23° south we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Here the Antarctic currents finally end. The trade winds are within reach, and Rimatara Island is only 580 miles away.
Almost three years ago it was the last tropical island where we stocked up on exotic fruit before the passage to Cape Horn. It was also where we learned first-hand that maritime rules saying a vessel can enter any port to replenish supplies do not necessarily work. We paid €100 — the price of a two-week visa — for just a few hours ashore to buy provisions. Type “Rimatara” into the search box on our website and read about those adventures. There is also a video on the channel called *The Last Inhabited Island*.
Only 580 miles remain until we cross our own track. But Lady Mary continues north toward the equator. A circumnavigation is considered complete if the yacht has crossed the equator twice. Only after that comes Tahiti.
Bad news
Yesterday our new, expensive, high-quality thermos, bought in Tasmania to replace one that had been killed within a year, stopped keeping things hot. It had never once been dropped, and throughout the voyage it had been treated almost like a sacred object: the captain specially modified the sofa so the flask could sit comfortably, deeply and softly between the wall and a cushion. I am thinking of writing to the manufacturer — perhaps they will send us another one :).
A good thermos matters on a long passage because it saves cooking gas.
We have once again appreciated the delights of wind-in-the-face sailing. For two days the weather also poured rain over us. In the end that part turned out to be useful, despite the stuffiness inside the sealed-up boat.
Something serious has happened to the watermaker and the crew has switched to strict water rationing. The captain once again attached to the boom a contraption he affectionately calls “the enema”. Rainwater runs down the sail to the boom, then into a wide funnel connected by hose to a bucket.
Soaked to the skin, Andrey opened our tropical bathing season that way. Thanks to the same rain-collection system, the girls and I opened ours today too: we washed on deck using bottles of rainwater warmed by the sun.
The list of failures that somehow need fixing in the middle of the ocean keeps growing. The captain is gloomy, though we try to cheer him up: — We will get through it. We crossed the Atlantic on rainwater; we will collect enough now too. Everything will be fine.
The trouble is that the most expensive part of the watermaker appears to have failed — either the membrane or perhaps the entire high-pressure membrane pump. Our hypothetical stop somewhere with spare parts, followed by an intensive repair campaign, remains just that: hypothetical. Countries closed because of the pandemic are still closed.
On the bright side, the anti-heat shades work well. And sewing up the mainsail before bathing, on a wheelhouse roof flooded with sunshine while the waves are capped with little white horses, is a wonderful way to raise morale. Look how many events we have had in one day!
I only hope I do not have to spend the night at the wheel again. The wind is gusty and the boat keeps falling off course, so we take turns steering.
Last night a thunderstorm hit us too. Zeus hurled lightning, apparently trying to strike the only metal pole sticking up for hundreds of miles. In fact we have two poles — two masts. We powered the boat down, dogged the hatches and hand-steered through the squalls. Fortunately the inside wheel is wooden. It seems we got away with it; the mast never had to become a lightning conductor.
Two big anniversaries today
Five years ago, during the night of 12–13 October, Lady Mary dropped anchor by the little island of Le Maire off the coast of South America. In 22.5 days we had crossed our first ocean and arrived in the New World for the first time. That was the moment our crew was initiated as ocean sailors. There are reports about that on the website too.
And eight years ago, on 13 October, guess what we bought? Lady Mary. Though at the time she was called *Titan*. Ladunya was two and a half; Nastya was eleven. So today is Lady Mary's birthday. She and I are accepting congratulations together :).
The yacht has already received her present — the sail has been patched.
Dinner will be tuna salad, green beans fried with garlic, buckwheat, homemade lemonade, and fresh apples with mandarins. We still want something else tasty, so perhaps we will open a tin of peaches. Thanks to Vasily Senatorov, owner of the yacht *Esmeralda*, we still have plenty of them.
The first atolls of the Cook Islands archipelago are now 200 miles away; Suwarrow is 548 miles away.
We will tell you about swimming from the yacht in the open ocean next time we refresh that experience. We have not swum from the boat while under way since the end of November 2018 — the weather simply never allowed it.
Hugs by satellite from 22°24′ S, 163°10′ W.
Heartfelt thanks to the wonderful people who contribute to the ship's fund through YooMoney and PayPal. Thank you for being part of our team! To see where we are now, visit travely-family.com and open the Route tab. It shows Lady Mary's track from the Rockstar Iridium 360 tracker provided by MVS Telecom.