Motoring
The first highlight of the day was spotted during the night watch, blinking lights on the horizon that proved less remarkable upon further inspection of the mystery object, yet it did provide much speculation during our full day motoring on calm seas.
The day’s real highlight though was waking up to Mary’s freshly made pancakes and coffee for our 5am watch. After another surreal Pacific Ocean sunrise, the day was spent motoring, counting boobies on the bow, eyes peeled for the next set of dolphins or hoping to be blessed by another turtle.
An endless blue half dome, not a single boat siting all day. Though most were hoping for more sailing, I think the smooth waters allowed all some much needed deep rest — a few extraordinary dreams were shared over dinner. Now that the sun is setting, we’ve been briefed there is wind coming tonight, we will be sailing and back to Marina Flamingo for lunch tomorrow!
// Nick
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LAND HO!
The formula for distance to the horizon (in nautical miles) is the square root of the height of eye (in feet) times 1.15. Which means the easternmost island in the Marquesas, Ua Huka, which is 2,806 feet high, should have been visible at 60.9 nautical miles, at around 430 pm, ship’s time, this afternoon. We didn’t however factor in cloud cover.
Dolphin party!
Kate was about to yank the spinnaker’s sock down when I spotted a stampede of fins heading straight for us. ”Dolphins!”, I yelled back to the cockpit excitedly. Post dinner dish duty was halted down below for the show.
The pool is open!
We stopped the boat, got the ladder down and put out a line with a fender behind the boat. I love swimming in the middle of the ocean, and a bit scary when you realize its more than 4000+ m deep! Love it!
