We have less than 400 miles to go to until we reach St Helena and less than 40 miles until we cross the Prime Meridian back into the western hemisphere.

This journey has also seen our return to the tropics crossing north of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Tropic of Capricorn

As should be expected on an ocean crossing of this size we have seen all kinds of weather from too much wind to not enough and towering waves to calm seas. We are plodding along slowly right now making only 4 to 6 knots but it is smooth and warm and pleasant. We are sailing “wing-on-wing” on a port tack with the main sail to starboard and the genoa poled out to port.

Sailing wing-on-wing

We are hoping to arrive into St Helena in a few days to be welcomed by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward. Yes you read that correctly. St Helena is part of the UK and has not had a visit from the Royal Family since 2002 and now, in honor of The World ARC, the Prince is coming. Either that or he is coming to open the new airport. Anyway, a public holiday has been declared in honor of the occasion which may or may not bode well for our visit.

We plan to spend 4 days on the island and do some hiking, whale shark swimming, and a round of golf on a wee nine hole course (the only course on the island) before we push on across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil.