The Southern Cross over Gabon

Spent the last two night at sea, and they were amazing. The constellation known as the ‘Southern Cross’ was clearly visible. You can only see it near and below the equator, and I haven’t seen it in 21 years. Very cool. Looks more like a kite to me, but that’s not the name of the ‘Crosby, Stills and Nash’ tune, so we’ll stick with cross.

Saw several satellites pass overhead as well. One of them may have been an older rocket body, looked like it was tumbling. You can tell by the way they reflect the sunlight. This one would flare in a repeating pattern. Also, very cool. I was pointing this out to one of the Nigerian officers on our staff who had never seen satellites before. He was truly amazed.

I love the sea at night, especially when it’s dark with good friends to share it with. Nothing like it that I've found anywhere else.

Libreville and Port Gentil (pronounced ‘John-T’) are our port stops in Gabon. Libreville was nice, and very, very expensive. Comes from the former French colonial presence here I'm told (and there are still a lot of French around). I’ve paid less for food and drink in Manhattan. Went to a self proclaimed Mexican restaurant…where the menu was pasta and hamburgers…sigh. But the Malibu rum was good.

Port Gentil is a working port. Lots of commerce: oil, timber and container cargo. Not really a tourist town, but that’s OK. We’re not here to be tourists…OK maybe a little. It is hot. Like August in Houston hot. Like steam out of a bag of microwave popcorn hot, like …you get the picture. But we’ll turn back north soon. And cross the Prime Meridian at the Equator. Can’t wait.

Fair winds…