Current position @0800 HST: 39-12, 138-50 motor sailing 082m winds 12 - 14knts
742nm to go!
now we start the countdown of the miles to home...and a REAL shower. Re-entry is always difficult...we've been so out of touch with what's going on in the world except what we hear at roll call and from emails from the guys' wives. kind of an alternate reality...would make a good Twilight Zone segment (for those of you old enough to remember). Since my bunk is in the middle of the salon, i usually awaken ~0700 to the cheery and bright-eyed face of the Warlord as he sits at the nav station. I'm gonna miss that. <sniff> the other thing about gaining one's land legs is the sensation that the floor is somehow moving...its not uncommon to misstep expecting the stable floor to lurch underneath you as on the water. The worst is being in the shower when you close your eyes and feel the rockin' and rollin'. Usually stops after a while.
We've been motor sailing for a few days now. Winds kicked up yesterday for a while and we got back to sailing. only for it to die at dusk, so we decided to furl the jib, center the main and turn the motor back on. <sigh> Fortunately, we are able to sail at the moment.
Andy treated us again to a tuna casserole from the tuna he caught the other day. Delise! My watch was relatively quiet, but the guys after me spotted a tanker off in the distance. Located more northeast of us (from the sounds of it). It's always fun to spot another ship and try to figure out by its lights which direction its heading, how large, etc it is. Our AIS still will not come up on our plotter, so its difficult for us to "see" exactly who the other boats around us are. We can transmit, but not received.
AIS is a signal unique to each boat that sends out the vessel name, type, length and other misc info about it. comes in handy when you see the lights off in the distance and you want to know what the heck it is. The same when some other boat sees us. This is something that must be installed on the boat. There is a transmitter and receiver piece. plus, i have an app on my iphone (Marine Traffic) that allows me to view all of the vessels world-wide. kind of cool. During ocean races, most boats turn theirs off so others won't know where they are...racing in stealth mode.
We're expecting a quiet, cloudy day of reading, napping and sailing.
Tiki Blue Standing by...
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