Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Fernando de Noronha to Rio de Janeiro

Day 8

Aug 13

Noon Position: 19 18.6S  37 14.2W

Course: SW 6.5

Wind: ESE 12

Noon miles: 144

Total Miles: 1087

We entered another squall complex at about noon yesterday (see Harmon for photos) and stayed in that until about noon the next day. This series differed from past episodes in that after hours of hourly changes in wind direction and velocity, we were overtaken, in the dark of night, by the largest rain storm either of us have ever experienced at sea.

The sky, which the full moon could not penetrate, pelted with rain without reprieve for six hours (from midnight to approximately 6am today). In this “squall” the wind was more even, if well north of forecast, so for that we rejoiced, but I was dismayed that the rain found leaks in hatch seals no other wetness has yet revealed, and in the morning, I found six inches of water in the bilge—rain water!

All this ocean around us and it’s the rain that gets in!

Sailing since has been sweet and smooth. Three nights to Rio de Janeiro.

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Some of you have taken to correcting my spelling. Well, welcome to the party! Such is a most cherished game of those with whom I correspond. One of these likes to end his emails with a PS on my errors, e.g. “PS. I think in the last blog post you meant ‘quiet’ not ‘quite’.” Quite! This friend recently ended an email with “PS. In your Oceanic Geology blog you referred to the Appalachian Mountains as ‘The Appellations’, whom you will recall as that famous 50’s pop group from LA.” Oy!

That last blunder is in a class called homophones, words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings, e.g. “right”, “write”, “wright.” My laptop and I are so blind to these that another friend, years ago, suggested I start my own list by way of self-correction. I am up to 170 homophones in English to date. Sadly, the list continues to grow only by the above errors of commission. Appalachians/appellations has now been added.

So have at! Call them as you see them. But do understand that my best friends (ehem!) have given up refining my orthographic skills and have resigned themselves to finding my creative constructions “endearing.”

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On that note, my cartoonist friend, Kelton, was inspired by the Oceanic Geology blog to create the following toon…