20 Years Ago Today -- April 28, 1996 -- Day 20

Sun. 96-04-28 - Day 20 - 2° 31' N  128° 00' W  Log: 1,716nm

Had the most gorgeous dawn before I went off-watch. The colours were pastels -- pink, blue, yellow, such as I've never seen in nature before. Sunrise was partly obscured by clouds, which were lit up around their edges and dark (silhouetted) in the middle. Took some photos. We've had lots of good sunrises and sunsets, especially near the doldrums, but there's been so much cloud that they wouldn't photograph well.

Slept and got up at 1800Z, causing concern about the rules of the lottery, as I needed to get a sun sight and reduce it, as well as my DR before 1900. Since the watch schedule was pushed out, it's too challenging. We agreed that I could take more time, to work out my calculations, as long as the sight was done before 1900.

I took a sun sight just before 1900 (5, actually, to ensure accuracy), as well as having noted the time of the appearance of the sun's top limb over the horizon at sunrise. Together, I applied a running fix, which probably would have been great if we had a decent log, but it's not working and the distance run I used was inadequate.

Lottery: John: 5 miles off; Dave: 12 miles -- 4:2. My sun sight was perfect, though, with the LOP running right through the GPS position.

For supper, John cooked up rice with (canned) vienna sausage [weiners] and (canned) spinach. Not bad, except for the spinach. We're really looking forward to catching a fish, though.

Ran out of water on port tank (45 gal.) despite having run the watermaker for quite a few hours. Unfortunately, it sucks air when we're on port tack, as we will be all the way to the Marquesas.

CDs:

• Stanley Clarke -- East River Drive
• Miles Davis -- Amandla