West of Greenwich
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2008
1
144
150
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Mallorca,
Spain
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Off Mallorca and Ibiza N 39° 38.9' E 01° 26.6'
Heading into moderate seas and wind. Mallorca appeared from the clouds to port during breakfast and was still just in sight at lunchtime, by when Ibiza had appeared also. I stuck mostly to the lee side for my walk - it was safe enough but the wind was whipping too much spray from the wave-tops for comfort.
Not long after Ibiza, the coast of mainland Spain appeared and stayed in sight for the rest of the day. Parts of it were spectacular - Monte Mongo and Cabo de la Nao and the various nearby "sierras" especially.
It's about 14°C outside and cool in the breeze, but too warm inside by several degrees. (I've asked the engineers to turn it down, but who knows whether they can?) Opening the port doesn't work - just "sucks" more warm and smoky air in from the passageway.
We passed the Greenwich meridian at 18:11, and go back to GMT/UTC tonight. So, I've achieved the "Go West" part of the objective, having now done 360° of longitude on the trip. I think the "round the world" part requires me to cross the track of the outward trip, so that will be where our route up the English Channel crosses my previous path between Le Havre and Portland Bill (6 August).
