The Turn North

Once we left Thursday Island, Australia in June 2011, we’ve been traveling west and south to round the Cape of Good Hope.  A few weeks ago, we began our northbound trip home, leaving Cape Town for the Caribbean via St. Helena, a small volcanic island one-third of the way between Cape Town and the Caribbean.  Our passage to St. Helena was a classic fair-weather passage, with moderate winds and seas nearly the whole way, and the thirteen days and nights passing in a languorous procession of easy watches, routine sail changes, and the gentle transit of the moon from a bright fullness to its empty newness.

Here are some pictures:

Leaving Cape Town, some goodbye flicks of the tail

Backlit genaker, pulling us along

Diagonal rainbows on a calm cloudy afternoon

Wind coming up; preparing the genaker for hoisting

Another day, another glorious sunset

Red-tailed Tropic bird, flying out to greet us to St. Helena