Monday, November 11
Wild start! I was hauling chain by 1230 and we were underway just before 1300. I was beet red from heat and a guy on the other boat in the anchorage, only a half a boat length away, asked where we were going. I let James hadle that conversation while keeping us off the neighbors, and I focused on getting that last 15m of chain into the locker.
The wind was light, which made James’ job a little easier. I mean, it was light as we left the cove, and it was light as the waves got mean. Only a little wind and a major current with choppy waves, so James put the motor to good use. Thanks, motor!
Then it took less than 5 minutes to need two reefs. James pulled one and didn’t even leave the mast before pulling another. We kept the staysail.
Now, at 1439, I’m on watch, we’re well trimmed, and it feels like regular ocean. We’re sailing mostly in the 4-5 knot range, which is excellent, and feeling pretty comfortable on the waves.
The wind decreased a bit, seeing more mid-3 knots, so I pulled out the yankee. It’s 1640 and we’re back to high 4s, reasonable wave action, and the slight possibility of a sunset? I imagine it’s too soon to be out of the Sahara-to-Amazon zone, but I’m looking forward to having tropical sunsets again.
In other news, I feel good. Maybe everyone should spend a couple weeks in a rolly anchorage before going offshore.
I wrote a poem once about my boat being like a cradle and the sea being the hand that rocks me. Some seas are clearly meth heads and others fall asleep before the baby.
Random thoughts in the dark (2018): doesn’t every latitude around the equator have a different longest day? And shortest day? Is that what the “tropics” are? And actually, in that band, they’d have a longest day and then the sun would keep moving poleward. Then it would come back down and they’d have a second longest day. Right?
Not having internet means having to follow a train of thought without guardrails. I could have failed anywhere along that proposition in either facts or logic. I could check for myself by traveling to the equator and measuring the length of each day or look into the compendium of human knowledge or ask an expert, but I can’t do any of those right now.
I’m rarely charmed by the idea of being wrong, but I am today. Must be situational.
A riddle: when is a straight line not the shortest distance between two points? When it’s a line of longitude other than the equator.
Tuesday, November 12
We’re still bowling along. Our average speed at 2400 was 4.8 knots. Wow.
I know the boat is capable and that this beam reach is her favorite. And that hull speed is somewhat over 6 knots before waves start pushing us along.
Still this is some of the most solid and powerful sailing we’ve done on this beautiful vessel. Knowing the condition of the bottom, meaning scraped by hand by me and James and none too smooth, I’d been expecting slower than usual averages.
I can only imagine what she’d be doing with a freshly smoothed and painted bottom!
Orion is just over the Primary Energies Tower. Hi, Rigel. Aldebaran is its usual sparkling self. I think the Sahara-to-Amazon dust conveyor is already thinning. Nice.
At 0728, with the sun well up, I think it’s safe to say we made it through the night without any flying fish landing on the deck. James put a nitrile glove in the cockpit so that saving them is less of a slimy and scaly experience. If we miss them, they dry out and stick to the deck. It’s so much better to hear them fluttering and toss them back while alive.
We’ve had a great morning for wildlife! A pod of dolphin used Cetacea for their hunting. A couple herded a large group of flying fish across the bow and the rest circled in hiding until they could pounce. They did 8 or 10 rounds of this while James was sleeping.
Later, he caught sight of a huge dorsal fin and recognized three orcas! I leapt up and saw their next disturbance, but they were going the opposite way and were too far for my mediocre vision. James saw them surface one more time.
Lots of little fish jumping, but no further sightings of whatever was chasing them.
Noon position: N 14° 57.302’ W 026° 40.001’
Distance 23h 6m: 115 NM
Average speed: 4.98 kn
Trip distance covered: 115 NM
Distance to destination: 1991 NM
