Day 199, Year 1: Still Smooth Sailing–Day 13
Date: Thursday, May 4, 2006
Weather: No Change—Beautiful Blue Skies Dotted with Puffy Clouds
Air Temperature: 80 degrees F, minus a degree or two at night
Water Surface Temperature: 79.5 degrees F (rising)
Latitude: 07 degrees 17 minutes S
Longitude: 119 degrees 10 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 13
Miles to Go: 1180 (~ 145 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: 1771
Our time has changed once again. We are now in the Pacific Standard Time Zone-same as California-but we are not on Daylight Savings Time. I think that makes us two hours behind the East Coast. We will change one more time before we reach the Marquesas and then when we arrive we understand that we will move the clock ahead one-half hour. Strange. Only the Marquesas has a time zone that is UTC minus 9 ½ hours.
Another good day. The Weather Buoy reports that we receive daily tell us that if we stay on our course we will keep the wind for the next five days. The seas are a little rowdy right now, but they should subside by Saturday. And actually the seas aren’t that bad. It is just that we are running down wind and we roll with the waves. It is something that you get used to, but cooking is always a challenge.
Our watch schedule has become routine. I sleep from 7 to 10 PM and I’m on watch from 10 to 2 AM. Mark comes on from 2 to 6 AM and then he sleeps from 6 to 8 AM. That was 9 AM until today when we had to set the clocks back another hour, so he will have to take a second nap after the morning net or we will just move everything back one hour. That’s probably the best solution. The net now comes up at 8 AM and 4 PM and life revolves around that.
Last night when I was on watch, we passed a fishing boat. It was 6 miles off, but it had very bright lights and a large image on the radar screen. Other boats on the net have reported seeing a fishing boat out here as well. Who knows where the boat is out of but wherever, it is a long way from home. When Mark got up at 2 AM, he had a fever. He has had a sore knee for days and it was very hot last night. We called the World Clinic and they put him on regimen of Keflex. He scratched his knee a week ago, and it was really a tiny little scratch, but the doctor believes that started the infection. The scratch has healed but the doctor is afraid the infection might have gone into the bone. Yikes! You have to be so very careful out here. Every little scratch can turn into a major infection. Mark is better today and we will hope that the antibiotic will work.
No signs of life today other than the flying fish. These little guys glide along the water everywhere you look and often in the morning we will have a few on the deck. Oops! They missed their target. Some boats are collecting and drying them to eat. We have just been throwing them back to the sea. Since we lost our good lure and fishing line, we have not caught anything. We’re using a lure that usually attracts smaller tuna, but no luck so far.
We want to wish our friends Claire MacKellar and Kevin Russell a safe and successful passage from Boston to the Potomac in the Chesapeake. They are scheduled to leave Boston tomorrow. Kevin and Claire lived aboard at Shipyard Quarters when we were there and we become very good friends. They are the age of our daughter and her husband, early thirties, and this is their first solo passage. Claire has just finished her graduate work at Harvard Medical and will be doing her post-doc work in the Washingon, DC area. They liked living aboard so much that they are taking their home with them. Fair winds and following seas!
