In the Vortex

15 May 2009

The angels decided to catch up on a bit of culture last night and pretty much spent the night at the ballet. We appeared to be caught up in some kind of vortex - the Indian Ocean equivalent of the Bermuda triangle we suspect. There was no phone signal, an eerie fog, little breeze, and a lot of teasing by the sea which would not let us hold our course in any direction. We pirouetted a few times on the spot before chasseing to the left, and arabesquing to the right, and generally going any which way but west. The ocean couldn't seem to decide whether it wanted to send us back to Oz or to a slightly chillier destination - apparently Antarctica is lovely this time of year. In true Angel style we battled through it and managed to make very very slow progress to the West, but we certainly haven't broken any speed records in the last 24 hours.

Given the repeated pirouetting we were a little annoyed that this all happened at night. Travelling from East to West in the Southern hemisphere means the sun goes over to the North of us and our left hand sides are getting a lovely tan. The pirouetting would have provided the perfect opportunity to even it out a bit but it wasn't to be. Instead we have had to rig up all the foil blankets out of the grab bag as well as angle the signalling mirrors for maximum reflection to ensure that we are evenly toasted on arrival in Mauritius.

We're now hopefully escaping the clutches of the vortex and beginning to make slightly faster progress but it's hard slog and we're still not demonstrating where the saying "travelling at a rate of knots" comes from. Any incentives gratefully received.