I’ve been lucky enough to have had over four months of wonderful summer weather in Fort Lauderdale so it’s all been a bit of a shock these last few days when I’ve had to dig out a pair of trousers and even a jumper to ward off the cold. I’ve definitely left the sub-tropics behind and it’s noticeably cooler up here at the heady latitude of 40 degrees north.
Since Irene passed us by on Thursday it’s been cold, grey and wet, pretty much like England in August. It’s rained or drizzled virtually non-stop so everything that got soaked in the storm is still just as damp, including me. My only consolation is that despite my best efforts we seem to be being pushed inexorably southwards again towards warmer climes, so perhaps I will be seeing the sun again before too long.
The wind has now died and we’re drifting gently south-east, pretty much as the Chinese treasure fleet did in the 1420’s after exploring the eastern seaboard of the US. They were the first to discover the clockwise rotation of wind and currents in the Atlantic, which is how Columbus actually knew about it before he set off to ‘discover’ America, having come across an old map showing the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico along with remarkably accurate charts of north and south America.
What the Chinese hadn’t at first realised was that the Gulf Stream flows strongly up the east coast of the US before heading out into the Atlantic until about where I am now, where it divides into the North Atlantic Current which goes north-east towards the UK, and the Azores Current which turns to the south-east.
In case you’re wondering why I’m rabbiting on about the Chinese explorers of old, it’s due to an excellent book by Gavin Menzies called ‘1421’ which my father recently gave me and which has totally changed my outlook on the European navigators such as Columbus, Magellan, de Gama, Cook et al, all of whom apparently knew exactly where they were going thanks to said Chinese charts. The Emporer of China had sent out great treasure fleets of enormous junks in 1421 manned with thousands of sailors, with the intention of charting the entire world and inviting it’s citizens to join the Chinese in trade.
His admirals did precisely that and charted every single continent, from the edge of Antarctica to the far north of Greenland, with at least five different fleets going off in different directions. However on their return they found that foreign policy had changed and China decided to close it’s borders to the world, so most of the evidence of the voyages was destroyed. Luckily some of the charts found their way to Europe, hence the voyages of Columbus and friends, who were all actually simply following someone else’s directions.
Although all of this is still open to some debate the basis of it does seem to be true, with evidence of Chinese settlements from around the world dating back to this time, and several wrecks of enormous junks found where they should never have been, such as Australia, South America, and the Bahamas. The book also comes up with the only plausible explanation for the mysterious sunken stone roads in the Bimini Islands, which some had previously claimed to have been made by aliens.
Anyway, enough of a history lesson, fascinating though it may be, for unless the westerlies return soon I too will go drifting by the Azores in a few days, although I don’t intend to land there as I’m determined to make it non-stop to France. Meanwhile there’s not much to do other than eat, sleep, read and watch films, and just hope the sun returns soon.
By the way, going back to Irene for a moment, I discovered that my wind instruments recorded a maximum of 60 knots which is officially Force 11 – Violent Storm, just one step below Force 12 – Hurricane!