Log Entry - Friday, Jan 20, 2006

Sailboat | Crew | Log | Route | Track

To the Sea Again Just before we departed from the customs dock Another gourmet meal complements of Mr. Ted Kinkel To the sea again we go. As I plunge my fingers to the keyboard, the bulge of the earth is pushing Bermuda from our sight. We jettisoned our mooring at 0830 this morning, waving goodbye to Mr. Danny Little, Full Circle's guardian angel for two months. After refueling and taking on water, we cleared customs and bought a few more groceries. Our sails were proudly flying at exactly noon. It is now 2:30pm. The sun is bright, the air is cool, and the easterly wind has us on a port tack making 5+ knots toward our destination, St. Martin. How satisfying to feel the wind in our sails and to know that in three days from now, we will be met by the faithful trade winds from the East. Our only mishap this morning was a dock line that found its way between two planks as we were pulling away from the Customs dock. This is serious, a twenty-eight pound monster is ripping at the dock, and dock is ripping at the monster. Something is going to give: the boat, the dock, or the line. In this case, I managed to stop the boat, but not before my new solar light torn from its mount. Since it was floating in the water like a fishing bobber cut from its line, we decided to launch a recovery operation. We got it back on board, but to my severe disappointment, it may no longer be operational. I may have to take it apart and turn it into a science experiment. We have an interesting watch schedule. We normally stand two hour solo watches. With four guys, that would give us six hours off between watches. To increase the off time, I changed every fourth watch to three hours. This gives us seven hours off between every watch, truly luxurious. If the one person on watch needs help, they call or wake up the next person in the cycle. Because there is so much Z-time, there will normally be multiple persons on deck anyway, except, of course, in the middle of the night. And that alone time, on deck, you and the ocean, you and and the stars, is sacred and better spent in solitude and deep reflection. The schedule is posted in the salon, making it easy to see who's on first and who's on second. After dinner notes: We experienced 10-15 knot winds on the beam (the best kind of winds) most of the day and sailed 5.5 to 7.0 knots, with one 7.1 mile hour. Full Circle was like a horse heading home to the barn after a long afternoon in the field. We are rocking now. For the first twelve hours, we averaged 6.2 knots and pushed 75 miles between us and Bermuda. We only turned the engine on to charge the refrigeration. Except for the squeaks and rattles of the boat, it is blissfully quiet. How about this? I got an email from a guy who randomly found our site by searching for "Caliber 40 LRC." on the web. We have a fan club. We have an audience; it grows daily. There is something satisfyingly vicarious about reading a narrative in real time. Unlike reality TV, it can't be altered by subsequent events; it is truely true. This is better than reality TV. This may be the future of reality TV. Where will this all end? When did it begin? Why are we in the middle of Atlantic Ocean? What can I say; its 3:15 in the morning and everyone is snoring. Previous | Next