Day 172, Year 5: Sky of Wonder
Date: Friday, April 16, 2010
Weather: Sunshine, Blue Skies, White Clouds, Dark Clouds, Squalls
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Sitting this close to the equator with absolutely nothing to block our view makes sky watching here just fascinating, both day and night. We can see weather systems coming from miles away. Like the pristine, clear water here that sparkles in iridescent shades of blue, the blue sky is so perfect with the puffy white clouds piling on top of each other around the horizon. Then we see a patch of gray and we can watch a squall as it moves around us or heads toward us. When a squall hits, we get lots of rain in a short period of time. This is helping us keep the water tanks filled without running the water maker so much, so I can put up with the squalls as long as the wind is not too strong and the sun comes out in between. Even when we get rain overnight, the nights always seem to always start out clear. Once the sun goes down the world becomes totally black. There are no lights for hundreds of miles except the light of the stars and the moon. We just had a new moon, so the last couple of nights have been incredibly black showing off the thousands upon thousands of stars. When we look to the north we see the Big Dipper, but since we are in the southern hemisphere, we cannot see the North Star. That will have to wait until we cross the equator going north in the Atlantic next spring. But to our south, we have the Southern Cross looking like a crossbow shooting a fiery arrow. When you follow a straight line from the left arm of the cross, there are two of the brightest stars in the sky. I call that the arrow. The Southern Cross will be our guide for the upcoming months and I know I will miss seeing it when we head back north.
Today our morning was a squally one, but I had a laundry in to soak overnight and I hung it out anyway. The afternoon was sunny, so the clothes got dry before the late day squalls hit. Mark and I made one last trip to Ile du Coin mid-day. I wanted to get some video footage of the buildings and we got two more jugs of water. We plan to move to Ile Fouquet tomorrow and then on to Salomon Atoll in the next few days. We will probably not be back this way, so we said our goodbyes to this beautiful little island while ashore. When we returned, Mark and Ed headed out of the pass north of here in our dingy to do some fishing. They caught bonito which they threw back and Ed got caught by a huge Wahoo that bit his lure in half and bent the hook and got off. They know it was a Wahoo because it leapt out of the water when he broke loose and they could see it clearly. It was just too big for the tackle they had with them. We’ll fish on our way to Ile Fouquet tomorrow and hopefully be flush with fish again. Tonight we are having beans for dinner, so you know it is time to go fishing.
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| 100416 Day 172a Peros Banhos, Chagos–Windbird's Chagos Water System |
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| 100416 Day 172b Peros Banhos, Chagos–Rainy Day Sunset at Ile du Coin |
