20 Years Ago Today -- May 4, 1996 -- Day 26

Sat. 96-05-04 - Day 26 - 6° 34' S  136° 28' W  Log: 2,451nm

Awoken for my pre-dawn watch by about a gallon of sea water landing in my bunk, via the leeward portholes after a near breach. Thoroughly unimpressed -- my bedding, which was already dirty and damp, is now wet with salt water. The weather is overcast, humid and the seas are splashy enough that nothing will dry.

Add to that the fact that we ran out of fresh water today. We decided that instead of heaving to on the required starboard tack in order to run the watermaker, we'll try to make it to Atuona without.

I had trouble sleeping in the morning and when I napped in the afternoon -- not at all comfortable with the damp sleeping bag. Totally gave up on the bed sheet.

The bread I baked yesterday turned out OK, although a bit crumbly. Maybe the extra sugar was a bad idea, but it was sooo unsweet the previous time.

With only a couple hundred miles to go, both John and I are very ready to arrive. This overcast, damp weather's really bugging us. Where are the gorgeous days and nights of the NE trades?

Sailing above beam reach now to try to make sure we don't end up downwind of Hiva Oa. Dodger side panel and centre section are up and the foreward part of the cockpit is quite comfortably protected from the spray.

We collected about 35 flying fish off the deck this morning, all but one small -- the other was about 4" long -- the first of that size that we've seen.

Somewhat slow this afternoon after John put a reef in, but we're hauling ass now (0500Z). Moon rose at 0430, full or full + 1 day, and it was very pretty. Quickly retreated behind clouds.

For supper, John heated some chili, served with bread or crackers, peach halves and cookies. I washed up using only salt water and drip dry.

Still reading The Fist of God, and quite enjoying it. 

I've made a few life decisions in the past couple of days. First, I plan to get a PHRF rating and start club racing Covivant [my C&C 32], at least some of the time. Second, I've decided to find a part-time Masters degree program, starting this fall. I'm leaning towards Engineering or Computer Science, although an MBA is also a possibility.

No CDs.

[Ed.: Regarding those decisions:

• I did get a handicap and started racing Covivant in the year after returning home. And we're still doing it 20 years later... same boat, same skipper, though the crew changes over time.
• I did look into graduate degree programs, but failed to find one that interested me enough. I did manage to teach a software engineering course at BC Institute of Technology in the year 2000, though. My real passion was software requirements management, but I couldn't find a course focused on that [where was Grady Booch when I needed him?] Years later, I realized that Agile software development methodologies bring a better model for requirements management than any I'd dealt with in the structured/OO analysis/design world.  I'm now a firm believer in User Stories and a prioritized backlog instead of more formal requirements documents, etc.  As for an MBA, I had a couple of friends who did MBA programs in 2001-2003 period, and my conclusions were that (a) they didn't seem to learn much that I hadn't already learned in 15 years of software industry experience; and (b) neither of them was able to (immediately, anyway) move into a non-engineering role by adding a MBA to their resume.

...end Ed.]

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.

20 Years Ago Today -- April 17, 1996 -- Day 9

Wed. 96-04-17 - Day 9 - 17° 15' N  114° 54' W  Log: 583nm

Up at 1645Z. Similar weather to yesterday, but better wind and by mid-afternoon we had classic NE winds, 10 - 12 knots and we were rolling (literally) along wing and wing at ~4 knots.

Today's lottery: Dave: 42; John: 54.5; Log: 55.3 (and all over the compass); GPS: 54. John wipes me! 3:3. Forgot to mention that we introduced another award, for the person with the least cumulative error. Loser buys the winner a movie in Papeete.

I was sitting in the cockpit around noon today when a squid flew over the combing by my shoulder and landed by my feet. It was pink and ~7" long. I quietly threw it back, but should have taken a picture first.

We trolled a green hoochie (squid) lure from dawn to dusk, but no luck.

I cooked a tuna "casserole" for dinner -- tuna (canned), mushrooms (canned), and cheese (mozarella) mixed with pasta in a pot. Pretty good. Served with salad of lettuce, carrot, jicama (Mexican turnip) and raisins. John baked a loaf of pressure-cooker bread today, as we've run out. Pretty flat, but not bad. Rescued an 8" flying fish from cockpit on night watch.

CD's:

• Miles Davis -- Sketches of Spain
• Sarah Vaghan -- argh, this album is scratched and wrecked!
• Chick Corea - Elektric Band
• Bill Evans -- Quintessence

20 Years Ago Today -- April 11, 1996 -- Day 3

Thurs. 96-04-11 - Day 3 - 20° 32' N  107° 46' W  Log: 140nm

Up at 1600Z (~11:00 local). Still not completely over that slight nauseous feeling. I made fried eggs with cheese in a tortilla for my breakfast.

Mostly high cloud today. Water is a deep beautiful blue today. Yesterday's was similar, but more grey (gun-metal). I saw a number of schools of flying fish jump out of the water, and once saw the pursuing tuna follow them into the air.

Very light winds since late morning, but still making some headway under sail alone. Motored 1.5 hours in late PM to charge batteries, but wind still very light afterwards. Sailed at 1 knot or less until about local midnight, with no steerage at all for 1/2 hour. In early hours, wind shifted to light W - WNW and we got some OK sailing in after that.

John cooked beef, fried sort of like tampiqueña for supper. Overnight watch was so quiet I heard lots of dolphins breathing on the surface, and saw the silhouettes of two in the bioluminescence beside the boat.