20 Years Ago Today -- April 13, 1996 -- Day 5

Sat. 96-04-13 - Day 5 - 19° 35' N  109° 16' W  Log: 234nm

Up again at 1600Z. Nice sunny day with relatively steady NW - W wind at 8 - 12 knots. Great sailing! I'm finally pretty well over the funny feeling in my stomach, and happy about that!

John installed a diode for the trolling generator and we towe it all day long, then realized the polarity was backwards so we didn't get any power out. Fixed. Also fooled for hours with the anemometer instrument, which eventually turned out to be a blown fuse we were certain we had checked hours earlier.

Great sunny day, clear sunset and starry evening. The weather is cool in the breeze and out of the sun, and we wear sweaters/pants and even jackets for night watch (1st time I've worn a jacket since returning to Mexico in January), but it's very pleasant and I haven't been feeling the need to wash (not sweating at all).

Lots of seabirds around today -- brown boobies and big black & white birds that also look like boobies. The brown boobies made many passes at the bow pulpit but didn't manage a landing.

I took a sun sight today with John's sextant. Haven't yet reduced it. Also studying the star chart tonight to learn some new ones.

Lottery today: me: 76; John: 79; GPS: 54 (ouch!). I win. Net Score: 1:1.

I cooked chicken fajitas tonight. Chicken stank. Hope we don't die of food poinsoning. I was disappointed with supper too. Moved watches 1 hour later. Me: 0300 - 0700Z & 1000 - 1300Z.

CD [listening on my Sony Diskman]: Tito Puente - The Mambo King [This was an album I bought in Mexico... Tito's 100th record.  Very good... I really had only a dozen or less CDs with me total.]