Sunday, November 24
Starting with 904 nautical miles left, plus however much we have to tack for whatever winds we get, so we have at least 9 more days, probably more.
While we’re down to 3 hard boiled eggs each, we still have 58 cheese wedges (29 each) and an unopened package of sliced cheese, with plenty of crackers and an extraordinary maracuja jam that really livens up the very boring cheese wedges. (They’re shelf-stable and I suspect are to real cheese as margarine is to butter, but they’re an important part of our diet on this trip.)
I’m not going to do the whole litany again. Last time, iterating the options was a self-soothing act. I’m not stressed about it now, just getting hungry so food is on my mind.
I hadn’t seen our little yellowtail hull fishes in a while, but we went through an area of small pieces of sargassum and they came out to graze. It’s a quick peck at each piece because we’re moving on and they don’t want to get left behind.
Also haven’t seen Crab Nebula in a couple of days. If Nebby is being extra subtle, cool. If Nebby was feeding on the hull and got dislodged or picked off somehow, well, that’s life on the ocean. I’m glad to be safely on a boat and not part of the hunt-and-be-hunted routine.
James shook a reef at about 1600. It’s pretty windy now but it still feels good and in control and we’re making very good time. It’s 2128 now and the day’s average is 4.3 knots. There’s rain all around us but a big rain cloud went alongside and passed us by. Now that it’s dark, I’ll be looking for clouds that obscure the stars.
Monday, November 25
It’s 0925 and I was just setting the cockpit back up for the day after a night of rain-risk, and a new bird arrived! It might be a frigate bird of some sort. When James takes over, I’ll check the field guide.
Funny thing, we each could have sworn we were going to be overtaken by rain clouds, and I mean visible curtains of rain between cloud and sea, but they never came over us after all. No skin off my back, but Cetacea got so dirty when we were downwind of the Sahara that rain is definitely welcome. We can easily rinse and wipe things at deck level, but the masthead sheaves and other fittings placed up high could use a good deluge.
Noon position: N 15° 24.165’ W 047° 03.456’
Distance noon to noon: 101.2 NM
Average speed: 4.22 kn
Trip distance covered: 1338.1 NM
Distance to destination: 810.8 NM
