Dena Hankins's Blog, page 2

Brava to Martinique Day 22

Monday, December 2

James asked me to get some video of this weather “if it’s safe” and if that caveat isn’t a hint about what it’s like out here right now, I don’t know what would be.

It’s so hard to get images, still or video, that really communicate the feeling of a large wave bearing down on us from astern. I tried.

And then I got the deluge. Very satisfying to have caught it happening; totally shocked that it happened.

Now it’s dark and I’ve begun my first long watch of the night. We’re on pins and needles about when we’ll arrive. If tomorrow has strong winds like today, we really could arrive before dark tomorrow. We’ve talked about our approach in case it’s dark when we arrive. Either way, it looks like we’ll be sleeping together in the forepeak tomorrow night. Wow. And ha! We’ll see.

The clouds seem lighter tonight? Maybe not squalls with high winds and rain? I hope.

Tuesday, December 3

What a terrible book. I’m a fan of Iain M Banks’ SF but his literary work is harder to stomach. Some are excellent though difficult, but Song of Stone is…not.

With at least 18 more hours, I have time to finish something else short. Let’s go romance!

About to wake James for his 0600-0900 and Martinique is on the screen now without zooming out…we’re getting close!

It’s 1115 and wow, if I had a hard time resisting the urge to do the time-speed-distance calculations earlier in the trip, looking at 40 miles remaining and a sunset arrival makes it a gripping topic.

We’ll be anchoring first in the larger bay, so that reduces the distance a bit. The inner harbor might be packed full and we definitely won’t have time to toddle around looking for a gap among the anchored boats and, if there’s nothing, make it back to the first anchorage before full dark. Instead, we’ll do some chores tomorrow and then move the boat a day or two later.

We could stay out there and take a bus in, but the inner harbor (Le Marin) has a grocery store with a dinghy dock and that’s just too good an opportunity to pass up without trying.

Noon position: N 14° 25.582’ W 060° 16.335’

Distance noon to noon: 108.7 NM
Average speed: 4.54 kn

Trip distance covered: 2147.4 NM
Distance to destination: 42.6 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 21

Sunday, December 1

With fewer than 240 nautical miles left to go, I’m starting to think about how to slow down right at the end so we don’t come in during the night. Between pot buoys, anchored boats, and the unfamiliarity of the harbor, I’d really rather have light to navigate by.

James is cooking my birthday dinner, spaghetti using the leftover red sauce and adding more yums to it. As is, it’s pretty spicy because of a red pepper pesto, so this should bring it into the realm of warm rather than hot.

The sun is far enough forward for the cabin house to cast a shadow over my legs and the breeze is from the port quarter. The only part of me getting hot right now is the back of my neck and even that is mostly protected by my hat. I love the cooling off part of the late afternoon, all the way to sunset.

Monday, December 2

What a rough night and morning! Squall after squall, winds variable in the extreme, and the dinghy slipped port and forward off the flat fenders creating a noisy dangerous situation.

I tried going to sleep at 2100, not knowing about the dinghy problem, but the noise of it moving got me up. I spent the next fifteen minutes pulling the dinghy back into place and making the starboard side more secure, all in the dark. It was fine for half the night but then James had to go retie the port side, also well before dawn. New moon darkness is harder to work in.

Meanwhile, some of the squalls were introduced by a brief gale on the leading edge. Cetacea and LoveBot did the most amazing thing, basically heaving to (stalling our forward motion) when the wind got too strong. We could have adjusted the control lines on the tiller to get more force sending us downwind, but the waves weren’t dangerous coming broadside and letting the gale pass us made for the quickest way out.

The seas are confused too, and that has meant some bad moments like when Beluga’s water fountain fell right over its tie-down line, the first time that’s happened in 7500 nautical miles, most of which have been ocean. The carpet kept all that water away from the hatch edges and thus off the house batteries, yay.

That was after a knife flew off the angled ledge and scared Beluga so badly he went into freakout mode, bouncing off the cabin sole, bouncing off James’ chest (cat claw punctures hurt!), and streaking into the forepeak. He’s been under the comforter ever since, about two hours now.

The non-Beluga mess is another unprecedented event…we took two waves over the cockpit coaming aft. The swell and the wind waves are bouncing off each other. Some special angle or velocity slopped the water over LoveBot and salt-drenched our rain-washed nas towels.

Speaking of which, it’s time for new towels. We hardly have any that aren’t stained, so it’s hard to tell which are clean and which are nas. They go from the laundry to the galley for drying dishes, then general interior cleaning, then to the cockpit as they take on a staleness or get dirty. Right now, there’s only one single towel that could be called clean. Even the ones in the galley have been hand washed and used again.

Though we have hit some high speeds, our average isn’t all that fast…calms between storms. I think we’ll arrive day after tomorrow and might need to dilly-dally at the end so we have rising sunlight for entering the harbor.

Noon position: N 14° 36.144’ W 058° 28.447’

Distance noon to noon: 97.2 NM
Average speed: 4.06 kn

Trip distance covered: 238.7 NM
Distance to destination: 147.3 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 20

Saturday, November 30

Tomorrow is my birthday! I’m going to make biscuits and gravy for breakfast, no mushrooms though.

Speaking of breakfast, I finished a whole bag of muesli! Fastest I’ve ever done that. It’s all about the shelf-stable yogurt. Even if it’s basically pudding because the beneficial enzymes are deconstructed in the UHT process, it was a good vehicle for some whole grains.

Which reminds me, I mentioned being constipated and I gotta admit, this is a weird situation. In the last 20 days, I’ve had 4 bowel movements. Ordinarily, they’d be painful and bloody with gaps like that, but they haven’t. Just ordinary in size and composition…you know, just poop. Shrug. I’d rather go a while between BMs and have them be easy than strain over them and hurt myself.

And in other news, it’s nearing sunset and the sky is a gift that keeps on giving. How many photos can I take of one sunset? A lot. I’ll just share my favorites here.

And…

Sunday, December 1

New moon birthday. Really nice to think in terms of newness rather than returning. I guess it’s both/and, as usual.

The sunrise wasn’t too shabby either!

Birthday breakfast was excellent! I’m getting the hang of making gravy. No measuring, just deciding how much butter to start with, enough flour to get the right texture, and enough milk or cream to make it was thick as I want it. If I’d been a little less nerved up by some bad weather heading our way, I might have remembered to add a little Worcestershire sauce and paprika like I do with packaged gravy.

I baked the biscuits on a cold cast iron skillet and that worked perfectly. The top and bottom were browned at the same time, unlike the bottom-first browning I get from the cheap roasting pan I’ve been using.

A little hot sauce and I was very happy with my birthday breakfast.

Noon position: N 14° 44.058’ W 056° 54.605’

Distance noon to noon: 101.5 NM
Average speed: 4.23 kn

Trip distance covered: 1941.5 NM
Distance to destination: 238.5 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 19

Friday, November 29

So far, so intense! By 1300, I was wearing my safety harness in readiness for pulling the second reef and assessing what the back edge of the rain squall would bring. The wind abated right as I unclipped the tether from its usual cockpit location in preparation for going forward, and it stopped raining, and James finished cooking lunch (creamy fusili pasta packet with a fat dollop of his leftover red sauce). So we put off reefing.

Between the unsettled weather and the two boats quite near to us, I chose the option of eating in the cockpit. By the time we finished, I was hot and could feel my legs gaining a little more of a sunburn. It was a relief to hand the watch over to James and get below.

One of the two boats is the sail training vessel (STV) Vela. She’s a big schooner run by the organization Seamaster, with which we have a little familiarity. There are 31 crew aboard and all but 9 are students. Neat to run into (ha) them out here. Seriously though, they’d roll right over us. I’m glad no one is running into anyone else.

The other boat is a catamaran doing 12 knots. Whatever. Not my cup of tea.

James made the call to reef after watching LoveBot struggle through a squall. I had to go out on the boom side and pull the sail free of the reef line because it was binding. My scary moment came after I leaned far out overboard to put eyes on the problem. When I was safely back inboard, I saw that the tether had come loose from my harness. I was just dangling there and didn’t even know it. It has an easy pull release in case you’re being dragged by the boat and it’s pulling you underwater, but I’ve never accidentally pulled it before that. Creepy.

Meanwhile, James kept cranking on the reef line and it suddenly gave way. I deeply hope we didn’t just tear the sail. Going back to a required reef at all times would be incredibly frustrating.

When we bought Cetacea, her mainsail was original and so stretched out that it couldn’t be set on anything but a run. Absolutely no beating was possible with the full main and, weirdly, the reefing system wasn’t set up. We tied in a perma-reef within days of leaving Robinhood Cove and sailed like that for two years before buying a new main.

We’ve put almost 12,000 nautical miles on this main and already have it in mind to get a new one but! But! I don’t know where the money will come from and I’d hate to really have to prioritize that purchase over other basics like doing a haulout. As soon as we leave swimmable waters, this boat is going to turn into a floating reef. I don’t think there’s a molecule of biocide left on the hull.

Saturday, November 30

So far, a half hour after midnight, my watch is smoother than James’. He had a squall send him flying at 7 knots with nearly horizontal rain. I’m in a clear space and I’m seeing a whole lot of stars aft. One dark patch is a big cloud but there’s a good chance it won’t go right over us.

Now that it’s 1030, I can tell previous-me that yes, there was more rain coming and that it wasn’t too big a deal. The bigger bummer was the rogue wave that came from a completely different direction from the rest and poured over me and Beluga through the saloon porthole. Ugh.

I got a little in my coffee and drank it anyway. We’re really low on instant crystals and may have to open the emergency ground coffee that was part of a gift basket given to James by a resident at Portland House. So yeah, it’s at the very least 6 years old.

Some mopping up with nas towels and things were fine…except that Beluga freaked out and retreated to the forepeak, waking James almost an hour before his off-watch was over. I bet James will be napping today!

It was an 11 flying fish morning and again it’s just sad to have all these beautiful creatures die on the deck. I’m at a loss for any way to warn them off.

Then, in just another mild calamity, the hatch cover for one of the galley storage spaces (the one we keep oatmeal, noodles, pasts, lentils, pearl barley, etc in) got tipped off the stove when it swung on its gimbals on a wave. It slid behind the stove, a space that’s so hard to reach that we only clean it every couple-few years.

After enjoying the last hard boiled eggs in savory oatmeal and letting the stovetop cool down, I had to (got to!) press the stove to an angle where there was room behind it for my arm, lean across it from tiptoes, and gain a finger hold on the slick melamine surface. I eventually managed, without being tossed off my feet by a wave, and got to clean the generous amount of greasy kitty hair from its edges. I’m glad it didn’t land flat.

Cleaning that space is on the to-do list for Martinique. We have to actually pull the stove out (which is tricky) but James has been concerned that we haven’t inspected the propane hose in a long time. He was on a dock once when a woman blew up her galley because of a slow leak behind the stove. That’s the kind of thing that sticks with a body.

We shook the second reef not long after 0900 and have avoided excitement for about an hour now. Looking good, feeling good.

Noon position: N 14° 53.135’ W 055° 16.178’

Distance noon to noon: 102.2 NM
Average speed: 4.26 kn

Trip distance covered: 1840.0 NM
Distance to destination: 334.1 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 18

Thursday, November 28

With an increase in wind comes an increase in waves and I just got my ass kicked by the stuff in the fridge.

We’ve been keeping hard boiled eggs handy. Easy, fast, cold, satisfying food is important. We bought in bulk in Cabo Verde and moved them into the six-egg cartons we’d saved for months, having heard that packaging is not included. I used two layers of the cardboard egg crate (originally 30 eggs per later), torn down to 3×4, to keep up to 2 dozen in the fridge at a time. Since we’re down to just 4 eggs, I tossed that bulk-egg cardboard and just used the regular 6 pack carton. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit tightly between the two plastic organizer bins.

Between the less-secure wedge, the less-common port tack, the bigger waves, and a whole lot of glass salsa bottles filled with leftovers and pre-mades, all I had to do was pull out the juice bottle and the eggs got pushed right down into the deep drinks space by the leftovers which then tried to follow the eggs down.

I caught most of the bottles before they took the dive but I couldn’t hold them back while also making up some system to keep them in place. I’d pulled the juice bottle because I was thirsty but finally admitted defeat and put it back while I made other plans.

It was a big damn deal for a few drinks of laranja e pessago.

And then there was Thanksgiving dinner!

We had tuna in lemon butter with capers, drizzled with cream sauce with aromatic herbs, plus mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, actual mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter, whole kernel corn, and cranberry loaf with straight-from-the-can texture.

That’s six things we cooked on a two-burner stove with an oven.

It was an epic ballet and the meal was delicious and comforting.

Started the night right. No sooner did James and I shift-kiss than a twack turned into a quick fluttering drumming on the deck. I unpursed my lips to say, “Oh no!”

I’d napped my 2000-2100 off-watch away so I had to take extra care getting out on the side deck. The flying fish, one of the brilliant blue ones, moved like it was tired when I picked it up. Whether it was renewed once reimmersed in its home element or too weakened by its time in our corrosive oxygen atmosphere, I know it splashed back in alive.

The AIS holds the other sign of how this watch will go. A sailboat named Bubbles Up, which sounds silly until James brings up the possibility that they’re divers, is coming up behind us. James spoke to them briefly and they’re going to the BVIs. That means that, even though they’re going to pass us on our port side, south of us, they’re going to have to gybe at some point and head more northerly. It’ll be hours before we can be confident that they’re well away.

Gotta go, there’s a slo-mo apocalypse to be averted.

A second sailboat with AIS is lurking about, throwing up a moment of signal and then going dark. They have either a weak transmitter or a bad coax cable/connector.

Apropos of nothing…do folks really not see a penis dangling under Orion’s belt? Maybe I just don’t know enough about Classical era clothing.

Friday, November 29

I called it. Bubbles Up gybed while I was off watch and now, about four hours after I last wrote about them, have crossed astern of us on an oblique angle. They’ll keep getting closer on that angle, kinda coming up beside us, so here’s another few hours maintaining awareness of where they are and whether they’ve gybed again. I think they might be set up for the BVIs now, so I hope it’s all good.

Fucking hell, so many flying fish! What the hell, fishies? Suicidal? Probably just ignorant of the danger we bring. I’ve saved a few but, no kidding, a couple dozen have died on the deck tonight and the sun won’t be up for three hours. It’s sad and confounding…I don’t know how to make it different. In a weird way, I’m glad that they’re snatched up by the bigger predator fish as soon as they hit the water. No safety but also no waste.

Almost the end of sailing day and it’s alternately sun soaked hot and damp breeze fresh. We’re looking at rain falling in a half-dozen places around the boat, the cloud-pseudopod’s fresh water foot reaching for the blood salty ocean. The wind carries high altitude coolness and sends the boat cruising along ahead of the waves. The more speed we have on, the slower the waves overtake us, and that combination is both exciting and comfortable.

Noon position: N 14° 49.343’ W 053° 34.991’

Distance noon to noon: 107.9 NM
Average speed: 4.50 kn

Trip distance covered: 1737.8 NM
Distance to destination: 431.4 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 17

Wednesday, November 27

Beluga Greyfinger wants love! He’s a talker at times like this and has been known to get frustrated and nibble a body that’s ignoring him. I didn’t like the way he was looking at my foot.

James came down and they had a nuzzle-fest. All better.

Thursday, November 28

I didn’t have much to say yesterday, but that’s just because it went smoothly, right down to watching the same four Magnificent Frigatebirds wheel and whirl, stoop and stop short just above the ocean’s surface. They’re agile in maneuvering but also glide for ages like fixed-wing aircraft.

Now, at the beginning of my 2400-0300 watch, the breeze has freshened. It still feels good with the single-reefed main and it has a humid warmth that’s comfortable. I’ve already saved a flying fish that landed right inside the cockpit so yay!

The early morning crescent moon reclines, a bowl of light in the dark sky. Only nearby stars and the background glow are overwhelmed by the golden sliver. With sunrise pushed back to our false 0835 (probably 0635 if we knew our place among the time zones), even a sliver of moon dominates the imagination.

I can see the whole of the moon! It’s not just that I know it’s there. There’s a rim-glow that gives it away. How did people miss the roundness for so long?

When James was clearing the deck of the 7 flying fish we didn’t save, he found another creature as well. Very odd, I wonder what it is…

I’m doing my 1000-1100 watch and the wind has picked up a good deal. LoveBot is working pretty hard, so we may have to reef even though I like our speed.

Noon position: N 14° 57.098’ W 051° 48.777’

Distance noon to noon: 93.8 NM
Average speed: 3.91 kn

Trip distance covered: 1629.9 NM
Distance to destination: 534.3 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 16

Tuesday, November 26

Squeaked by on that one! Day 15 was 100.1 nautical miles. We started in the low threes and made it up overnight, totally different from the first days when it was high wind afternoons and easygoing nights.

Beluga Greyfinger is an excellent sleeper

We’re not changing the onboard time to account for our change of longitude, so the sunrise and sunset are both around their respective 8 o’clocks. It’s odd, but it is a good fit for how we divvy up night watches.

That means my clocks all say it’s 1342, but the sun hasn’t reached its zenith. I’m caring because of a strange project I have going on, something I’ve never ever done before…tanning.

I’ve enjoyed some sunshine with a bathing suit on, sure, but getting a tan wasn’t the point. And since getting tattooed, I’ve been protective of my ink. In general, whether I’m biking to a wage-slave job or sailing, I get enough vitamin D.

There was one thing I wasn’t thrilled about in Tantum, though. I wanted to do more snorkeling. I got worried about sunburn pretty quickly because, functional tanner that I am, the fronts of my thighs are much darker than the backs. When I’m cycling, my calves get brown too, but that’s been a long time now…two and a half years!

So yeah, I’m stripping down and lying athwartships in the cockpit for ten or fifteen minutes a day. Today was my…fourth day? Or fifth. Anyway, here’s hoping I don’t burn or don’t burn as badly once I’m doing the good snorkeling.

Coconut milk soup with vermicelli is so very easy and pretty damn yummy. Now, it’s no tom kha because it’s waaaay too simple, but I can add complexity as I have access to things like lemongrass and fresh ginger (or ginger smush) and roma tomatoes and cucumbers and whatever else tends to go in those soups.

Wednesday, November 27

Uneventful night, but quite starry. The breeze chilled me a bit, but it wasn’t actually cold. Put me in the mood for oatmeal, though, and being out of eggs I went with sweet: milk powder, chai masala, honey, craisins, and butter. It was delicious!

Noon position: N 15° 15.296’ W 05° 18.235’

Distance noon to noon: 97.9 NM
Average speed: 4.08 kn

Trip distance covered: 1536.1 NM
Distance to destination: 623.0 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 15

Monday, November 25

Not just a frigate bird, but a Magnificent Frigatebird! The red pouch under its head is inflatable as a courtship display. I’d like to see that, but it seems highly unlikely. They do nest in the Marquesa Keys, so who knows?!

We caught the edge of a rain storm, got a little rain but not cleansing amounts. The more dramatic part was the wind change. I had to gybe and ended up broad to the wind with the yankee out in order to go the right way, but not for long. The wind swung back east.

We’ve been getting farther and farther north of the route but just a tiny bit at a time. Since we were now on a port tack anyway, we’re sticking with it. It’ll be a nice shallow approach to the line (heading straight for it just increases the distance we cover).

Action stance! Washing dishes in a pitching sea

There are some motions that become habit when we’re on the same tack for a couple of weeks like this. The boat’s been leaning a certain way and there are more and less stable ways to brace your body and any objects you’re hoping to set down for a moment.

And it’s not just a mirror opposite change from a starboard to a port tack. The cabin isn’t bilaterally symmetrical. The galley is all to port, for example. When opening a cabinet in there while on a starboard tack, everything inside is trying to fall away towards the hull. On a port tack, though, every can, bottle, and packet wants to fly out at you. Gotta be careful.

Another full deck bath and I’m feeling great! Saltwater wash, freshwater rinse: same as I did for our galley towels yesterday.

The enchilada sauce is gone now…James made nachos for dinner with the leftover smeaty bean dip and used it in lieu of salsa. I’m looking forward to having Hispanic food access again!

Tuesday, November 26

I just did something unprecedented. I fell asleep on watch without setting an alarm…and slept through the change of watch. Whoa. Uncool, though not really dangerous with so little traffic around us. Ah well, I’ll forgive myself and just not do that again. James seems more bemused than anything.

The flying fish are doing a fine job of beaching themselves on our boat. It’s possible to save some of them, but they’re sneaky bastards and end up in the weirdest places.

Noon position: N 15° 12.666’ W 048° 40.330’

Distance noon to noon: 100.1 NM
Average speed: 4.18 kn

Trip distance covered: 1438.2 NM
Distance to destination: 716.8 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 14

Sunday, November 24

Starting with 904 nautical miles left, plus however much we have to tack for whatever winds we get, so we have at least 9 more days, probably more.

While we’re down to 3 hard boiled eggs each, we still have 58 cheese wedges (29 each) and an unopened package of sliced cheese, with plenty of crackers and an extraordinary maracuja jam that really livens up the very boring cheese wedges. (They’re shelf-stable and I suspect are to real cheese as margarine is to butter, but they’re an important part of our diet on this trip.)

I’m not going to do the whole litany again. Last time, iterating the options was a self-soothing act. I’m not stressed about it now, just getting hungry so food is on my mind.

I hadn’t seen our little yellowtail hull fishes in a while, but we went through an area of small pieces of sargassum and they came out to graze. It’s a quick peck at each piece because we’re moving on and they don’t want to get left behind.

Also haven’t seen Crab Nebula in a couple of days. If Nebby is being extra subtle, cool. If Nebby was feeding on the hull and got dislodged or picked off somehow, well, that’s life on the ocean. I’m glad to be safely on a boat and not part of the hunt-and-be-hunted routine.

James shook a reef at about 1600. It’s pretty windy now but it still feels good and in control and we’re making very good time. It’s 2128 now and the day’s average is 4.3 knots. There’s rain all around us but a big rain cloud went alongside and passed us by. Now that it’s dark, I’ll be looking for clouds that obscure the stars.

Monday, November 25

It’s 0925 and I was just setting the cockpit back up for the day after a night of rain-risk, and a new bird arrived! It might be a frigate bird of some sort. When James takes over, I’ll check the field guide.

Funny thing, we each could have sworn we were going to be overtaken by rain clouds, and I mean visible curtains of rain between cloud and sea, but they never came over us after all. No skin off my back, but Cetacea got so dirty when we were downwind of the Sahara that rain is definitely welcome. We can easily rinse and wipe things at deck level, but the masthead sheaves and other fittings placed up high could use a good deluge.

Noon position: N 15° 24.165’ W 047° 03.456’

Distance noon to noon: 101.2 NM
Average speed: 4.22 kn

Trip distance covered: 1338.1 NM
Distance to destination: 810.8 NM

Brava to Martinique Day 13

Saturday, November 23

We definitely busted right past the midpoint of this journey and now we’re about an hour from a “distance to destination” of fewer than a thousand miles. If we get the wind in the forecast as reported by the sailor on the 60-something-foot sloop, we’ll have more than half of that covered in the next 5 days.

Oh, that’s Thanksgiving! I guess we’ll see!

A special treat: chocolate cookies with peanut butter

The food boredom has already set in. We’re eating hard boiled eggs, tuna, and one of three kinds of cheese with most meals. There are the pasta nights and smeaty bean dip nights (after a rice mit Scheiße so we can have leftover rice with it).

Actually, the smeaty bean dip is a lot more like chili once I add enchilada sauce. And I grew up eating homemade chili over rice, so that works for me. Anyway, it’s good and a little different.

I’ve been saving some of the other meals for when/if it gets really rough and making a hot meal has to be simple or it just isn’t going to happen. Like popping lentils and artichoke hearts in the packet of vegetable soup (it’s a smooth soup, fully blended).

Funny but true, the coconut milk vermicelli soup is super easy because I boil everything but the noodles and tuna, then turn off the flame, add the noodles and tuna, and let it sit for five minutes. It kinda doesn’t count as a change of pace because of the tuna. And it’s pretty plain at this point with just soy sauce, Sriracha, and dried Thai basil for flavor. I just reread that and smiled…it sounds pretty good, even without the dashi/fish sauce/oyster sauce kind of bass note.

Sunday, November 24

What a world!

James handed over the watch with a tale of fantastic sights. I got out to the cockpit and wow…gobsmacked.

The bioluminescent critters enliven the froth of our passage and twinkle like stars in surface bursts. But deeper, fireworks!

We’re being escorted through the ocean by a shoal of tuna. When one of them strikes, there’s an illuminated explosion…and it’s constant somewhere around the boat, like the crescendo of a fireworks display.

The surface sparkling and deeper flashes are mirrored in slow motion by the light of Jupiter applauding Orion’s night-long cartwheel. And then there’s Mars, the tagalong that can’t catch up. I turn my attention from the richness of the starfield to the pelagic drama…and back…and forth…

Daylight strikes. Rain has come through a couple times and the downwind side is also in the shade, so it’s still wet. A nice strong breeze is both drying our towels and sending us along at a good clip. From this standpoint, at 1039, we’re probably going to approach but not pass 100 miles for the day.

Noon position: N 15° 22.930’ W 045° 22.792’

Distance noon to noon: 99.2 NM
Average speed: 4.14 kn

Trip distance covered: 1236.9 NM
Distance to destination: 907.6 NM