20 Years Ago Today -- April 26, 1996 -- Day 18

Fri. 96-04-26 - Day 18 - 4° 56' N  126° 28' W  Log: 1,553nm

Up at 1730Z; had a bowl of granola with milk. Reading some more of Silent Treatment. We have a visitor this afternoon -- a white-tipped shark about 4' long, cruising lazily behind the boat.

Lottery: John: 10 miles off; Dave: 14 miles.  Day's run: 85 miles.  1:3.

John cooked up refried beans and some sausage we bought in Puerto Vallarta, but I really didn't like either. Unfortunately, there's some sausage left. Also coleslaw.

The shark left us after a couple of hours. We must have been going too slow for it. We motored about 4 hours this afternoon, as well as 2 this morning, and finally got a light breeze in late PM. Still squally, but the only rain we got today had no wind with it -- bummer.

On my second night watch, I caught a 34" long Wahoo on a small purple/white hoochie. It seemed so small, I eventually let it go, after having spent 15 minutes looking through the fish book to identify it. It's hard to recognize a fish in the dark. The moon had set and it was overcast, so it was hard to get a good look at him. Although quite long, it was so skinny, I couldn't believe we'd get a meal out of it -- ~2.5" in diameter, I think. Later I realized we could have had a nice meal of it, with pasta to fill us up if he wasn't big enough. I guess I just wasn't in a killing mood.

Finished reading Silent Treatment on my night watch, and read some more of the South Pacific Handbook. Silent Treatment was pretty good -- too bad he staged a climax chase scene in the boiler room, as the same was done in the other book of his I had read lately.

20 Years Ago Today -- April 25, 1996 -- Day 17

Thurs. 96-04-25 - Day 17 - 6° 18' N  126° 19' W  Log: 1,495nm

Warm and humid. Weather's relatively pleasant. Winds generally 5 - 8 knots NE - E, with ~15 near squalls, which is where we make most of our mileage. Haven't seen wind yet over 25 knots and it only lasts 1 - 2 minutes at the leading edge of a squall, then settles down to 15 or maybe 20.  1,324 miles to Nuku Hiva.

I cooked spaghetti with a canned sauce and garlic bread for supper, with fruit cocktail for dessert. Getting low on oranges, despite having brought about 50 of them. Most kept well with 10% moldy right away. Vegetables are virtually gone. There's one meal of chopped cabbage in the fridge and a bit of jicama left.

My second night watch was completely done in foul weather jacket and pants. It's tough to dress for the squalls as the rain and wind are cold, but inside the suit is hot and humid.

Lottery: John: 24.5 off GPS position. Dave: 26 off.  John: 2:1.

CDs:

• Miles Davis: Round Midnight
• Oscar Peterson: We Get Requests (John liked this one)

20 Years Ago Today -- April 24, 1996 -- Day 16

Wed. 96-04-24 - Day 16 - 7° 21' N  125° 45' W  Log: 1,430nm

We're now past 1/2 way to the Marquesas and deep into the horror of the doldrums. Our strong NE trades faded into unpredictable SE winds for most of the day. Drizzle a lot of the time, with a few downpours in squalls.

I spent the day in the cockpit and now have dishpan body. My hands and feet are especially shriveled. Basically, a downer of a day. Decided to try 2 hour watches tonight -- afterward we both agreed it didn't work for us. I couldn't keep my eyes open for one hour at a time, so we'll be going back to our usual 4 + 3 + 3 + 4 system again. [We didn't run formal watches during the day, as we were both up much of the time and alternated cooking and chores as needed.]

John baked a couple more loaves of white (Booby) bread which were ready in early evening -- yummy, with more sugar than the recipe called for.

For supper, John sauteed some weiners and served them with mashed potatoes (from a box) -- a welcome warm meal for me, as I had been soggy in the cockpit for many hours, and was chilled. The cabin -- closed up against the rain -- is very warm and humid, so John was hot when he relieved cold Dave.

Night watch was actually pleasant, as we didn't get hit by any squalls. Slow going between squalls, though, and we're probably only averaging 2 - 3 knots.

Lottery: New rules: guess our 1900Z position (lat/long). Closest to the GPS position wins. My guess: 7° 25.5' N, 125° 37.9'W, was derived solely from the DR log + 5 miles guesstimated West setting current. I was 8 miles out, and much closer than John, who was 32 miles off.  1:1

No CDs.

20 Years Ago Today -- April 23, 1996 -- Day 15

Tues. 96-04-23 - Day 15 - 8° 56' N  124° 53' W  Log: 1,334nm

Up at 1700Z. John ran the engine for 1.5 hours early this morning to charge batteries -- it wouldn't be at all necessary if we could get the trolling generator to behave. John put it out using an old halyard instead of his special rope this morning. It's slowly kinking up as well. The only solution I can think of is trying wire rope.

Great sailing in NE trades until late afternoon, when we met our first rain squall. Maybe 25 knots of wind, tops, where we had been sailing in high teens to 20 already. Night gave us distant lightning and a number of squalls -- all on John's watch.

No CDs. This is the edge of the doldrums. We're grumpy so no contest today.

20 Years Ago Today -- April 22, 1996 -- Day 14

Mon. 96-04-22 - Day 14 - 11° 03' N  124° 06' W  Log: 1,228nm

Up at 1700Z. Romping sail! Still handsteering, but John has put another repair attempt into motion. Vane back in commission by mid-afternoon, and working fine.

An exciting and momentous day today... cleaned up the decks in mid-afternoon - 3 large (8") flying fish, 6 small (1-2") flying fish and a 7" squid, all dead on deck. Caught our first fish today, a 20" female Mahi Mahi (called Dorado in the Caribbean). She was bright yellow/gold as she dragged behind us. I filleted her not too badly and John cooked her up in the frying pan for supper -- yummy!

We decided we were close enough to our planned turning point at 10° N 125° W, so turned the boat South at 2100... oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the dorado was caught on a white lead-head/feathered lure... the only one I have like it.

We tried the trolling generator again but the rope gets hopelessly kinked up, so had to give it up -- John's [rightfully] pissed off because Downwind Marine sold him this very expensive rope for the purpose and it's useless.

Lottery (round 2): Dave: 130; John: 135.5; Log: 129; GPS: 142. John takes it 1:0. Now that we've turned South, though, we have a dilemma about what to measure.

Each of my night watches was entertained by dolphins -- one to two dozen at a time, for 10 - 20 minutes. Great company.

I'm now reading Michael Palmer's "Silent Treatment".

The waves were big and tossed us around a lot today. Not quite as relaxing as I had pictured the trades. Still running with reefed main and poled-out yankee, but gybed the main over today when we turned South, on a broad port reach.