20 Years Ago Today -- April 29, 1996 -- Day 21

Mon. 96-04-29 - Day 21 - 1° 02' N  129° 44' W  Log: 1,853nm

Another sunny day in paradise. Up at 1800Z, took sun sights for our contest and worked out my EP -- not good at all -- even my LOP was quite a bit off, and we had run WAY further than either John or I imagined using our WAG log record.

Lottery: John: 19 miles off, Dave: 44 -- John wins 5:2. With less than 150 miles left in leg 2, John obviously won. In addition, that's 2 out of 3 legs for him, so I owe him dinner.

I was feeling tired today, and grumpy/down. It kind of surprises me that I have mood swings out here when the weather is so consistent. I expect partly it's the increased boat motion, now that we've been reaching in 15 knots day and night. The doldrums were a refreshingly softer ride, although not nearly flat.

After working out my EP, I cooked myself up a great breakfast of French toast cheese sandwiches, using the bread I had baked. Although it wasn't a great bread alone, it made great French toast.

Had a nap in late PM (as I have most days) and slept hard -- had trouble waking up. Our great circle course to Hiva Oa is a beam reach so far -- I hope the trades get less South in them rather than more. Only about a week to go to the Marquesas. We'll be crossing the equator sometime in the middle of the night tonight. Making good time.

I'm quite frustrated at my lack of success fishing, despite changing lures every day or two. For supper, I heated a can of chili, and opened a can of peaches, and John cooked up a brownie mix for dessert.

Not in the mood to spend my watch in the cockpit, so I think I'll write a letter or two. It was cool today -- t-shirt required in the shade (with 15 knots of breeze), and a sweatshirt is likely not enough to spent my watch outside -- ironic as we're at the equator. All in all, sailing in the tropics is much cooler than I imagined.

The boat's CD player loading mechanism seems to be malfunctioning, so I played my cassette tape "Thalia -- In Ecstatis" at supper. Luckily, I've still got my portable CD player. CDs:

• Miles Davis -- Kinda Blue (dawn)
• Manteca -- Perfect Foot

Wrote a 4-page letter to my ex-wife on my 1st watch and a 2 page letter to my buddy Yves and his gang on the 2nd watch

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 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 16, 1996 -- Day 8

Tues. 96-04-16 - Day 8 - 17° 45' N  114° 09' W  Log: 531nm

Up at 1700Z. Sunny day with small flat cumulus clouds. Have we reached the trades? Wind ~8 knots most of the day, shifting N and then NE at 2000. Too light for good downwind sailing, but we're moving, and relatively comfortable.

Lottery: Dave: 75; John: 79; Log: 81; GPS: 78. John wins. 3:2.

I'm at peace with myself and the world out here. Pretty bad week's run so far, but we should be able to look forward to better wind most of the remaining distance. I've quite enjoyed most of the sailing, which was virtually all light air upwind stuff until today. No anxiety about the trip or expected duration to date. I'm happy to be here and not really looking beyond the sailing. Thinking about lots of my friends. It'll be nice to get together with them when I return.

Sailing wing & wing since mid-afternoon. Slow but well-balanced and heading approximately the right direction (225° magnetic). I took a series of star sights at dusk, so I'll be reducing them during my watch. A bit warmer today and tonight than the last few. Sure is perfect conditions -- not too hot or cold.

Hmph! My sights gave me 3 perfectly intersecting LOPs and another only 5 miles away, but GPS says we should have been ~30 miles to the south. Strange! John also got a sun fix near mine and we're rather confused.