Flying fish are funny little creatures. They are super speedy, dashing out of the water through the waves faster and for longer than I would have thought. There are also slimy, scaly and bouncy little buggers. I now possess this knowledge after getting personal with one, trying to save its life after it flew inside and landed in our saloon. Not sure if it made it in through a 4-inch gap in our opened hatch or flew in between Andy and Matt through the companionway. Either way, pretty impressive, darn surprising and perfect timing since I had to get up at 2:20 am for my night shift anyway.
With lighter winds, we flew the spinnaker all day maneuvering constantly on a more westerly route to follow the winds. Flying the kite is advanced sailing for sure, calling for a gentle hand at the helm as you steer within a small margin of error, doing your absolute best to keep the sail winking but not luffing and under no circumstance allowing it to wrap around the forestay. I’d say it’s expert level sailing but that brings to mind the much harder and frequent gybing of the Delta Ditch run and its accompanying “Out on the foreguy! Out on the foreguy! Foreguy!! Foreguy!!!! Made! Sheet in the bumble bee! Grind! Grind!! Grind!!!”
As the relaxing day wore on and the crew was chilling out on the cockpit, out of absolutely nowhere the top batten flew off our main, blasted straight down on to the wooden cockpit floor (in between the three of us), and catapulted into the sea. This 3-ft rock hard fiberglass pole landed with the accuracy and force of a javelin throw onto a 1-ft by 1-ft no-consequence-zone. No one was hurt, and after saying a little “Thank you Jesus, thank you guardian angels, praise you Neptune”, Matt called out for a morale boosting Hershey Kiss. Hours later we were still counting our blessings and thanking the lucky stars.
Our meals continue to be pretty healthy: fresh bread, fruits, veggies, hummus and avocado snacks. We polished off the homemade pico de gallo given to us as a parting gift from our friends of SV Oso. Thank you Oso! Get that motor working and catch the next northern, we miss you guys.
Our solar and wind are producing but we’ve been running low on energy so we will be turning off the fridge. I’m happy we prepared for this and won’t be losing provisions. Part of the fine balancing act that is life at sea.
Good night everyone. Until tomorrow, Bravo out.
Stats
- Date: 3/21/18
- Time: 0000 UTC
- Position: 15°23.9’ N 114°42.5’ W
- Course (Heading): 240 T
- Speed: 6.5 knots
- Wind direction and speed: NE 9 knots
- Swell direction and height: N 1-3 ft
- Cloud cover: 5%
- Barometer: 1014 hPA
- Status: all well
- Distance traveled (nm): 641
- Distance to go (nm): 2065
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Sailing on SV Bravo 