Today started out mostly cloudy but now it’s become a beautiful sunny day. The clouds to the north were quite dramatic shortly after sunrise today.
A natural question to ask on passage, beyond “when will we get there?” is how far from land are you. While the answer to the first question is perhaps next Wednesday, the answer to the second question is clearer, close to Point Nemo.
Later this afternoon, Pandora will be at her furthest point from land in any direction than she will find herself at any point during this passage. The traditional definition of “Point Nemo” is the point on the planet that is farthest from land in any direction.
The actual Point Nemo is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, near Pitcarin Island where Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame, made landfall.
Another definition has to do with finding the most inaccessible point on the planet, such as the North or South Pole. I’m going with Point Nemo.
Interestingly, “Nemo” means Nobody in Latin, but that’s another story.
Check out more on Point Nemo here.
This is named after the fictional character, Captain Nemo, in the book by Jules Vern “20 leagues under the sea.”
While Pandora’s Point Nemo is not technically the world’s most remote place, it is Pandora’s most remote place now and EVER as I have no illusion that I will be crossing the Pacific Ocean.
It is Friday morning and it definitely, totally, for sure, feels like we are in the middle of nowhere, 500 miles from the closest land, in this case Newfoundland.
For all practical purposes, we are completely alone except for the occasional ship that passes on the horizon and even the dolphins have abandoned us today.
And speaking of ships, if we had any difficulty and had to activate our EPIRB, Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, they would be asked to divert and assist us.
No chopper to come to someone’s rescue out here as their operating radius is about 350 miles from shore.
So, exactly where in the world is Pandora?
We are 1,000nm from our home in CT and 2,000nm from Trinidad, where I began this journey in April.
To continue with distances…
We are closer to Horta, 770nm than from Bermuda, 1,100nm, where we departed for this leg last Saturday.
It is safe to say that we are really, really far from everything but the most unsettling distance of all is the distance from Pandora to the ocean floor, over 16,500 feet down.
I wonder how long it would take for a penny tossed overboard to fall that distance? A boat? Best not to think about that…
Setting that aside, and I must, there is not much going on today unless you count that the wind direction and speed instruments that stopped working.
It took a while but I was able to solve the problem after fussing with wires for about and hour. I am not certain what the actual fix was beyond a bad connection but they do work now.
With the operative phrase “for now”.
As is often said, “everything on a boat is broken, you just don’t know it yet.”
Sadly, no truer words have been spoken.
Wherever we are, it is nice to know that the “end is near”, of the trip that is, and that we can begin to have confidence about when we will arrive in Horta.
One thing that I am becoming more confident of is that we will likely beat Brenda’s arrival on the 16th by a few days.
For now, where are we? Near Pandora’s Point Nemo. Of that I am certain.
Editor: As part of the first ever Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.