20 Years Ago Today -- April 19, 1996 -- Day 11

Fri. 96-04-19 - Day 11 - 14° 53' N  118° 14' W  Log: 816nm

Pretty, red dawn before I went to bed this morning, and, much later, a pretty, red sunset to match. Up at 1700Z. Overcast today, with wind 15 - 20 knots from the NE. We continued wing and wing all day, and put in a reef before sunset. The boat's moving well (and a lot!), averaging 5 to 6 knots.

I've been particularly grumpy today from the incessant rolling, swearing a blue streak every time I tried to do anything. Cooking was very slow and frustrating, as the boat rolls +/- 35° at least once a minute as some steep wave overtakes us.

I cooked french toast cheese sandwiches for myself for breakfast, which were pretty tasty when I finally got to eat them.

Today's lottery: Dave: 145; John: 140; Log: 132; GPS: 135. John wins. 4:4

Oh yeah, Doug the boobie left us not too long after sunset, after dropping into the cabin to check things out. John says he fell off the dodger through the open companionway. John threw a blanket over him to get him out of the boat, and unceremoneously tossed him overboard, as he had outstayed his welcome. Quite a bit of poop on the dodger.

Finished reading the Bourne Ultimatum, and frankly was sick of it long before I finished.  Weird, since I had quite enjoyed the Bourne Supremacy a few months back, but this didn't seem to be in the same class. Started reading David Stanley's South Pacific Handbook, which is quite interesting (eek, non-fiction!). Interestingly, he comments in it that Boobies can be found at sea as far as 50km from land, yet Douglas came to us a couple hundred miles from the nearest land, and there were quite a lot of boobies around until yesterday -- I didn't see any today (some shearwaters though).

Saw a flying fish today. Streamed the white feather lure this afternoon, but still no fish caught.

We had trouble with the trolling generator, as its prop keeps jumping out of the sea at these speeds and the rope gets kinked up. After untangling it 3 times, John gave up and brought it in. Unfortunately, without it we had to run the engine for a couple of hours tonight to charge batteries (1st time since the 11th, despite refrigeration and watermaker and running lights -- troll generator and solar panels really work).

Interestingly, the generator tows off-centre, I guess due to the prop spin -- it's adviseable to ensure it's mounted so it tows outward from whichever side of the boat it's towed from, so a fish line can be towed clear of it on the other side. It's been a concern for us, as the right-hand prop (from aft) tows off to port, but the generator was mounted on the starboard side of the cockpit.

Starting to run low on fruits and vegetables. Celery (rotten), bananas (rotten) and carrots (rotting) were used or thrown out today. One head of lettuce and 2 (questionable-looking) cabbage left, as well as 1.5 jicama (root vegetable that looks like turnip and tastes [raw] sort of like carrot). Apples and oranges (in foil) generally OK, although we've been finding rotten oranges occsionally since day 3.

I cooked baked beans (from a can) with a carrot/jicama/raisin coleslaw salad for supper, with a couple of slices of John's excellent Boobie bread.

No CDs.

20 Years Ago Today -- April 18, 1996 -- Day 10

Thurs. 96-04-18 - Day 10 - 16° 17' N  116° 24' W  Log: 684nm

Up at 1645Z. We're really in the NE trades. Wind NE 15 - 20 knots all day and all night. Cumulus clouds (small) and gorgeous blue water in the sun.

John found a 1.5" flying fish carcass on the foredeck, which I made the subject of a couple of photos.

In late afternoon, we were joined by a brown boobie, which landed on the dodger, foredeck and downwind pole before settling in for the night on top of the dodger. It's 0300 local time and he's still there, snoozing with his beak under a wing and miraculously maintainig his balance on this roller-coaster ride (we roll pretty hard at times with the yankee poled out to weather). We've named the boobie 'Douglas', after my childhood neighbour who was nicknamed 'Booby'. [As an adult, I have to wonder how his family gave him that nickname, but as a child it didn't occur to me.]

It's been great, fast sailing all day, averaging ~5.5 knots, and we're enjoying ourselves but for the the occasional hard roll that makes sleeping and other chores hard.

Today's lottery: Dave: 100.1; John: 94; Log: 94; GPS: 103. I win.  4:3. We're getting ~10 miles a day push from the current now.

John made a pair of white bread loaves in the oven (we called it Boobie bread -- no boobies were harmed in the making of this bread) which was very good, and served beef stew, cream corn and salad with it. Great dinner!

We've been without a moon for about a week now and will welcome the brighter nights when it returns (we passed New Moon a couple of days ago).

CD: Sarah McLachlan -- Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.

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.]

20 Years Ago Today -- April 12, 1996 -- Day 4

Fri. 96-04-12 - Day 4 - 20° 07' N  108° 26' W  Log: 179nm

My 34th birthday. Up at 1600Z. Still not quite over the odd feeling (kind-of queasy) in my stomach, which is irritating. Sorted through some rotten vegetables (altready).

This afternoon, started reading Robert Ludlum's Bourne Profecy, which I expect will be quite a good read. Had a 3-hour nap in the afternoon.

John cooked a birthday dinner for me. BBQ steak (turned out to be really thin), broccoli and salad. He also baked a chocolate cake for dessert, and had balloons and everything. Really nice!

My first night watch (0200 - 0600Z) was peaceful, but frustrating sailing all night. We sailed towards Orion until it set, with the bright silver reflection of Venus on the water just to the North. The wind was really fluky, from 2-8 knots from SW through NW. Boat speed roughtly went from 0.5 - 4+ knots and back in 10 minutes, with headings from 180° - 280°. Our desired course is 240° magnetic.

During a lull I heard a couple of small whales (from the sound of the breath) breathing and splashing nearby. Saw nothing. During the day some brown boobies flew round and round us, trying to land on the spreaders or bow pulpit, but eventually gave up.

Today John suggested a new game: Guess the mileage made good from noon - noon. We'll divide it into 3 sections and winner of 2 of 3 gets free dinner at 1st restaurant in the Marquesas. For today's run, I guessed 40 miles and John guessed 47. GPS says the answer is 44, so John wins by a hair. 1:0 for John.

[The GPS unit we had aboard was a hand-held one that seemed to burn through batteries quickly. We didn't keep it running most of the time, but John powered it up each day for the "noon" location.]