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 28, 1996 -- Day 20

Sun. 96-04-28 - Day 20 - 2° 31' N  128° 00' W  Log: 1,716nm

Had the most gorgeous dawn before I went off-watch. The colours were pastels -- pink, blue, yellow, such as I've never seen in nature before. Sunrise was partly obscured by clouds, which were lit up around their edges and dark (silhouetted) in the middle. Took some photos. We've had lots of good sunrises and sunsets, especially near the doldrums, but there's been so much cloud that they wouldn't photograph well.

Slept and got up at 1800Z, causing concern about the rules of the lottery, as I needed to get a sun sight and reduce it, as well as my DR before 1900. Since the watch schedule was pushed out, it's too challenging. We agreed that I could take more time, to work out my calculations, as long as the sight was done before 1900.

I took a sun sight just before 1900 (5, actually, to ensure accuracy), as well as having noted the time of the appearance of the sun's top limb over the horizon at sunrise. Together, I applied a running fix, which probably would have been great if we had a decent log, but it's not working and the distance run I used was inadequate.

Lottery: John: 5 miles off; Dave: 12 miles -- 4:2. My sun sight was perfect, though, with the LOP running right through the GPS position.

For supper, John cooked up rice with (canned) vienna sausage [weiners] and (canned) spinach. Not bad, except for the spinach. We're really looking forward to catching a fish, though.

Ran out of water on port tank (45 gal.) despite having run the watermaker for quite a few hours. Unfortunately, it sucks air when we're on port tack, as we will be all the way to the Marquesas.

CDs:

• Stanley Clarke -- East River Drive
• Miles Davis -- Amandla

20 Years Ago Today -- April 27, 1996 -- Day 19

Sat. 96-04-27 - Day 19 - 3° 53' N  126° 48' W  Log: 1,609nm

Up at 1700Z. Fixed myself some eggs for breakfast. At mid-morning, it appears likely that we are truly in the SE trade winds, and through the doldrums -- hurray! Sunny, puffy cumulus clouds and steady 10 knots of wind from SE. Ah, paradise.

Daytime cabin temperature is still mid-eighties (~30°C). Nighttime watch is shorts and t-shirt mostly. Humidity down from the high values in the doldrums. John and I are both happpy.

Lottery: Dave: 12 miles off. John: 43! 3:2. I took a sun sight at 18:30 to help me -- it was close.

I baked bread today, using Ardmachree's white bread recipe, although I used 20% whole wheat flour in order to empty a container. Made two handsome loaves, plus I attempted cinnamon rolls, which weren't great -- not nearly enough sugar in the cinnamon layer. Hang on... let me sample the loaf... well, not that great. Looks good, and rose better than the Boobie bread, but not as nice a flavour. Maybe the whole wheat flour is to blame. Fun!

I also made supper -- tuna, mushroom and cheese pasta (re-run), and used the end of the cabbage for coleslaw. No more fresh veggies, except onion.

Great, peaceful sunset. We listened to Milestones together. CDs:

• Miles Davis: Milestones, Doo Bop, 7 Steps to Heaven
• Los Del Rio: Macarena
• Stanley Clarke: East River Drive
• Chick Corea: Elektric Band

Started reading a horror book: Dark Channel by Ray Garton. Long time since I've read a horror book.

We moved our watches, as we're getting west, and the sun is rising and setting much later. My watches: 0400 - 0800; 1100 - 1400Z. I took sun and moon sights in late PM, but the sun shot was off by 42 miles. Ouch!

Stats on our doldrum crossing:

• From April 23 @2100Z -- 8° 50' N to April 27 @ 1600Z -- 4° 07' N.
• Width: 4°40' = 280 nautical miles.
• Took us 91 hours = 3.07 knots average.
• We motored less than 10 hours, half solely or partly for electrical power requirements -- too slow for trolling generator at times.

My early pre-dawn watches on the last two nights had the same phenomenon: I could discern light in the SE from over the horizon. Nothing on RADAR, but I concluded there must be a fish boat there. This morning, John saw a 150' fish boat (tuna?) chug past in the distance from that direction, so I guess I wasn't hallucinating after all.

When it's clear, the night watches on this trip have been fascinating, as we learn some stars and constellations, and watch as the sky changes as we move further south and west. The Southern Cross was visible from Puerto Vallarta, but is now quite high in the sky, and the North Star is very low -- neither of us have seen it for about a week.

Still kicking myself for letting that wahoo go last night! I've really become quite interested in fishing for food, ever since sailing aboard Cabezon.

There are interesting bioluminescent flashes happening tonight, as the boat and trolling generator (the halyard is working out fine) disturb some sea life or other. The flashes seem to be about 8' across.

I'm feeling quite happy today, no doubt because we're back in the kinder, gentler trades -- sun, pretty fluffy clouds, stars, > 1/2 moon -- it's great. We're beam reaching on a course of 210° magnetic, starting a great circle course to Hiva Oa, Marquesas. I'm happy despite having nicked my finger, scalded my hand (fiddling with the oven while boiling water on the stove), and sweated through a hot day in the galley.

Next trip, bring: video camera, at least 2 35mm cameras/bodies, and a flash. I've love to shoot some 1000ASA colour or 1600ASA B&W in the moonlight. Neeed a lens that can focus <<6', unlike the 70-210mm zoom I brought (and nothing else). Also a camera mount and shutter release would be good. Mount is absolute necessity for good video.

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)