20 Years Ago Today -- April 14, 1996 -- Day 6

Sun. 96-04-14 - Day 6 - 19° 00' N  110° 59' W  Log: 336nm

Up at 1700Z. Sailed through the Islas Revillagigedos, or "Revelling Gigolos" as the skipper of Markenurh calls them. Sailed south of San Benedicto and north of Socorro, at 5 - 10 miles off each. San Benedicto had steep bluffs on the south (visible) side. Socorro was much bigger (visible virtually from sunrise to sunset), tall and not steep, with the impression of large grassland areas.

Gorgeous cloudless day with 10 - 15 knots from the NW. Rather rolly at times as we got lifted to a beam reach. We logged about 109 miles on the log. Lottery: Dave: 105; John: 111; GPS: 101. Dave wins again.  2:1 for me. Today was kind of easy, as we could see exactly where we were.

Towed an orange squid lure all afternoon with no luck. Put a reef in at dusk but shook it out a couple of hours later. Made good time all day, but a bit slower this evening. John cooked hot dogs this evening. Our fresh food supplies are starting to dwindle.

Put on my headphones for a couple of hours on my first watch and listened to:

CD's: Mile Davis -- Amandla; Doo Bop.

Continued reading the Bourne Ultimatum. Oh yeah, spotted whales spouting south of us off the west coast of Socorro Island. Looked like puffs of black smoke.

Had a cockpit shower in mid-afternoon with a fresh rinse. Cold!

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.]

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.

20 Years Ago Today -- April 10, 1996 -- Day 2

Wed. 96-04-10 - Day 2 - 20° 30' N  106° 35' W  Log: 75nm

Switched our watches to UTC. I got up about 1600Z and we both spent most of the day in the cockpit, with a nap each.

We erected a new sun awning over the aft portion of the cockpit to join the dodger to the backstay. This provided welcome shade.

After 16 hours of motoring, we finally got a breeze and sailed from 1800. We decided to use 1900Z as our reference "noon" for reporting progress. This position is given at top, with distance from Puerto Vallarta. My watch: 0200 - 0600Z and 0900 - 1200Z. Good sailing at 4+ knots overnight. Steered by stars (Orion) on 1st watch. Cloudy on second watch. Crossed shipping lanes.

I cooked pork chops for supper.