Day 28: Ascension Island to Azores

Thursday, April 14th 2022

If you had the time, inclination and a rather large shovel, and you were to dig your way in a straight line from Sydney, through the centre of the Earth, and out to the other side of the planet, you’d arrive at pretty much precisely the patch of ocean we’ve just sailed through.

Known as one’s antipode, our current position is the exact opposite side of the planet from our departure point, and as such, marks the geographical half way point of our circumnavigation.

Because I’m a giant nerd, I’ve been looking forward to this moment for a while. But the truth is that while latitude and longitude to three decimal places prove the factual basis for saying we’re half way around, the more impactful “half way around“ moments are still to come.

We have three more occasions coming soon, each of which could lay claim to be the emotional midpoint of our journey.

First up will be Falmouth – that’s where we’ll make landfall in the UK, the country of my birth. It’s where Jen’s grandfather grew up and sailed. And also where Steel Sapphire was built and launched. So it’s a pretty meaningful location for all of us. Even just having my passport stamped is going to feel like a pretty major achievement. Having emigrated 22 years earlier, I’ll have finally sailed “home”, the very opposite of a 10 pound pom.

While we’re there we hope to make a pilgrimage to Steel Sapphire’s birthplace, and perhaps even meet the project manager who oversaw her build. We’ve certainly got a few questions for him!

The next major emotional moment, at least for me personally, will be sailing to Glasgow – the city where I was born and grew up, and where my parents and brother still live. Sailing up the River Clyde to Largs, where Dad keeps his boat, and where I did most of my sailing growing up, is going to be pretty poignant, and I can imagine more than a few tears being shed at that point. (Jen’s also had a high impact moment on a sail boat at Largs, but that’s a story for another day).

And finally, a couple of hundred miles further north is Loch Creran, near Oban, where I actually learned to sail, and thus can be said to be the starting point for this entire journey. We’ll certainly be visiting there later this (northern) summer when we cruise the West Coast of Scotland.

That’s a lot of milestones, and we’re expecting each of them to feel really special in their own way.

But on reflection, it does feel like passing our Antipode, and completing this mammoth odyssey of a passage by making landfall in the Azores, is more than just a factual milestone - it also represents a significant turning point on our journey.

Not just because each mile sailed will now be taking us closer to Sydney, our home, and final destination.

But also because I think it represents our graduation from relative newbies, still learning the ropes, and with some of the hardest passages still to come, to well-seasoned sailors (we’ll leave the grizzled old salts title for when we arrive back in Sydney) who have logged some significant miles, dealt with some major challenges, and can tackle pretty much whatever the ocean has to throw at us and take it in our stride.

Now that’s a milestone worth celebrating.

In Scotland, an appropriate celebration would be “a half and a half” – ask for that in any bar and you’ll get a shot of whiskey and a half pint of lager.

As sailors, though, rum is the tipple of choice, and we’ll be toasting both ourselves and Neptune for looking after us so far later today. We might just wait until we make landfall in Azores before cracking the bottle of champagne that Jen’s already got on ice, though.

Day 28 Statistics:

Time on passage so far: 27 days, 21 hours
Distance covered in last 24 hours: 131 nm
Average Speed in last 24 hours: 5.5 knots

Official Length of intended Route when we set out: 3,480 nm
Current Projected Distance to Go according to chart plotter: 269 nm (to Horta, baby)
Distance Sailed so Far: 3,355 nm
Total Projected Distance of Route: (3,355 + 269): 3,624
Change in total projected distance in last 24 hours: - 9 miles (dodging some wind actually saved us some miles)

Estimated Day of Arrival: PredictWind is now saying 9.30am on Saturday 16th April

Number of miles sailed to reach our antipode: 24,597