Brava to Martinique Day 7

Sunday, November 17

Wow. We’ve gone 633 nautical miles in six days. This is definitely a record created by the settled weather. It’s a little stronger in the afternoon, a little gentler overnight. I couldn’t ask for better conditions.

If we could run the genniker, we probably wouldn’t because it would lose the wind when the swell makes us roll. I’d really like to have a pole, but do we get one sized for the yankee or for the genniker? Adjustable is expensive and prone to failure. Either way, we’d need a track on the mast for storing it. I should look into how other cutters rig theirs for mast storage.

We’ll be able to counteract the increased weight aloft to some degree, maybe a lot, by modernizing the VHF cable to the antenna. It’s the big old kind, and very heavy.

I’m vaguely worried about the age of the standing rigging. It would be great to swap the lower shrouds for dyneema and see what we think. The uppers get chafe from the yankee sheets and the forestays have roller furler foils on them and the backstay is the ssb antenna, so…hmm.

It’s 1451 and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get another 100 mile day. Oh well, at least I got a little project done.

It’s been bugging me that the lifesling wasn’t on the same side as the swim ladder. If someone goes overboard, you toss them anything that floats first. Then you go back for them, which could mean a lot of things depending on how you were proceeding before.

Once you’re within a few hundred feet of the person in the water, you toss out the lifesling. It’s attached to the boat by a long tether. You circle the person, bringing the tether into their reach without putting them in danger of being hit by the boat. If they can grab it, they now have a lifeline to the boat.

They should put it on if they can, though I wonder about the fit over an inflated life vest. Now you can pull them towards the boat, which should be hove to and the prop should be inactive.

But…what now? They’re conscious and at least a little capable if they grabbed the lifesling. They might be able to climb into the boat themself, which would be great because the other option is hauling them up by the lifesling or a harness.

The way it was set up, the person in the water would be on the wrong side of the boat for using the ladder. Now, that is fixed! Good little project and I cleaned a bunch of the Sahara off the tower and aft rail.

Monday, November 18

A shooting star next to the nearly full (waning) moon. Happy Monday!

Jupiter is just above and to the right of the moon except…thinking about the spacial relationship between the sun and moon with us here on Earth between them and how the light on the moon can be traced
backward to the sun. The teacher holds a cue ball in one hand and a flashlight in the other.

Suddenly I see that Jupiter is not above or to the right of the moon. Jupiter is beyond the moon. The sun is on the opposite side of the planet I’m on, shining through clouds and clear atmosphere to warm people far from me. It goes Sol, Earth, Luna, and finally, so very far away compared to Luna, Jupiter. I can see the lineup as though from above.

And there’s the third shooting star for tonight! What a universe! And once again, thank you, Jupiter, for sweeping up most of the dangerous ones.

Odd thoughts in the 0630 darkness. I leave religion out of my writing on purpose to decenter that element of the human condition. Others do the same for other reasons like keeping a wide market.

I do want to include the experiences of awe and wonder and glory. In writing romance, a lot of that is wrapped up in sex and in other moments when characters share those experiences with the result of getting closer emotionally.

Thinking about the romances I’ve read recently with overt displays or expressions of religion, I remembered one with no religion except…the family prays before meals and the potential partner thinks nothing of it.

I’m made uncomfortable by expressions of faith that include me either by default or actively. It being nearly Thanksgiving, I thought about what I’d do if a family meal started with a request that I say grace.

Whew.

Of course, after my initial automatic and honest feeling of distaste, my thoughts toyed with the idea of grace and food and being thankful. Here’s a way I could give thanks with integrity.

Thank you microbe and fungi. Thank you soil and sun. Thank you farm worker and every other worker who made this food available. Thanks be to the person or people who planned this meal, shopped for it, and brought this feast to fruition. May we cherish the boon of all the striving and use the influx of energy to ripen our own fruiting bodies, whatever they may be.

Noon position: N 15° 21.308’ W 036° 54.028’

Distance noon to noon: 92.3 NM
Average speed: 3.85 kn

Trip distance covered: 725.3 NM
Distance to destination: 1398 NM