going from right to left. Today's looks like… well, a lot more like a
GPS trail should look. A more or less straight line south-southwest,
with only the occasional kink and wiggle showing where squalls
interrupted my push southwards.
Last night when I retired to my bunk at 1am I was anxious that the
elements seemed to be pushing me north-northeast, back the way I'd come,
but I was too tired to row any more. So it was with a sense of
trepidation that I turned on the GPS this morning, wondering where I
might have drifted during the six hours I'd been away from the oars. But
to my delighted surprise the screen showed that I'd traveled southwest –
not very far, admittedly, but definitely in a helpful direction.
And today has continued generally good. The wind has been fickle,
swinging through all points of the compass, but so light that I have
been able to set my course without being pushed around too much. I
crossed over 3 degrees North – and then another 13 miles south beyond
that.
This evening I was listening to a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks about
the Law of Attraction, a concept I've been familiar with for 6 or 7
years now. The idea is that whatever you focus on, you attract into your
life. The trouble is that many people focus on what they DON'T want,
rather than what they DO want. And the Law doesn't discriminate between
the two – you still get it whether you want it or are determined to
avoid it.
Generally, I absolutely agree that the Law holds true. I've seen it
operate in my own life – both positively and negatively. Fortunately now
that I know about it I'm much better at using it to my advantage, and
many spooky serendipities have convinced me that it really works. I get
goosebumps when I feel it happening, and it seems to happen more and
more as I get clearer about my intentions.
But does it apply to weather? Of that I am not convinced. I've been
feeling a lot more positive the last couple of days. I'd be hard pushed
to say whether I am feeling more positive because of the good progress,
or if the good progress has been as a result of my more positive
feelings. My suspicion is that weather obeys the laws of physics over
the law of attraction – or maybe I just keep seeing those big black
squall clouds bearing down on me and lose my focus on the positive. I'd
be really interested to know if anybody has any stories to report of
"mind over meteorology" – aka anti-rain dances!
[photo: Still trying to identify the whales I saw the other day - here is
a picture of the whale at the surface. Sorry - no pictures of the whales
smiling, so I don't know if they had teeth or baleen (what are baleen
anyway?!). Also apologies to people who get this blog via Feedblitz - if
you want to see the photo you'll have to come to rozsavage.com because we
are still unable to fix the problem with posting a photo as an attachment
to my blog. Sorry for the inconvenience - but there's loads of good stuff
on my new-look website so I hope you'll enjoy taking a look anyway!]
Other Stuff:
I haven't received comments today, so apologies for not acknowledging
the recent comments, questions and quips from the Rowsters. But Nicole
did send me through the responses to yesterday's Tweet – "so quiet out
here you could hear a fish flatulate" – which seems to have caused much
hilarity in the Twittersphere!
Weather report:
Position at 2310 HST: 02 46.988N, 176 10.299W
Wind: 0-5kts, N-S
Seas: 1-3ft
Weather: mostly fine with scattered cloud, increase in squalls this
evening
Weather forecast, courtesy of weatherguy.com
Latest Roz tracker reported your position as: 03 06N 175 48W as of 03Aug
0238HST.
As of Monday morning 3 Aug 2009. According to measured data, there is
SE winds 0-8kts in your area with moderate to light rainshowers. South
of the equator, more of the same. Wind direction should to shift more
ENEerly 5-15kts today then, SE 5-15kts on 01 Aug becoming light and
variable and possibly SW 5-15kts.Uncertainty remains in the forecast, as
previously discussed.
According to satellite imagery, there is moderate convection with heavy
rainshowers and squalls overhead and to your north. Minimal cloud
activity to your south.
Sky conditions: Mostly cloudy. Scattered heavy rainshowers, squalls,
and possible thunderstorms.
Forecast (low confidence due to extreme variability in equatorial
regions and naturally occurring small scale fluctuations in
direction/speed in the Doldrums)
Date/Time HST Wind kts Seas (ft) est
03/1800-04/1200 SE-E 5-15 2-5
04/1200-04/1800 E-NE 5-15 2-5
04/1800-05/0600 NE-E 5-15 2-5
05/1800-05/2100 E-SE 5-15 2-5
05/2100-06/0600 SE-S 0-10 1-4
06/0600-07/0000 Light and Variable 1-4
07/0000-08/0000 SE 5-10 1-5
Next Update: Thursday, 06 August
