Sailing, celebrating, star watching, eating brownies
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Mary
Happy birthday to you
Yes, it’s our skipper’s birthday today! We have two more birthdays coming up on this trip.
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It’s day 3. Almost everyone has found their sea legs, so all is well.
We’ve had a great passage so far. Good wind, a comfortable sea state, good company, good food. What more could you ask for? (Hmmm. A shower would be nice.)
It’s warm! Down below, it can be a bit of a sauna. On deck is not as bad as I expected. A decent breeze cools you down a bit. As we’re heading almost due north on a starboard tack, the mainsail provides a reasonable amount of shade after noon when sitting in the cockpit. However, you are rather exposed when at the helm.
Even at night, it’s warm on deck. The breeze is such that when at the helm I’ve been almost too warm wearing two very light layers. May it continue!
As the moon is past its third quarter, we’re getting amazing views of the stars for the first part of the night (provided there aren’t too many clouds). At around 1945 last night, Phoebe was at the helm and six of us were sitting in the cockpit. No conversation was going on. Had we fallen out already? No. Were we miserable and counting the minutes to the of the watch? No. (Three of us from the next watch were up on deck early.) We were all simply quite happy just to soak in the sight of the Milky Way.
I was on the 2000-2300 watch last night. Looking astern, it was great to see the Southern Cross slowly pivot as it made its way across the southern sky. How often are we able to see the night sky AND make the time to observe the passage of the stars across the sky?
Just had dinner. Phoebe cooked brownies in lieu of a birthday cake. Well received.
The sun has just set. We’re slowly settling in for the night.
Good night.
Bruce Hardie
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Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.
Dolphins and Bioluminescence
We had a good run with the sails but weather has changed and we are once again chasing the wind. Everyone is getting a chance to practice helming in big swell; starting to get a feel of the wind and water and how it pushes and pulls the hull. A pod of dolphins came to visit at night, splashing in the bioluminescent water, and again in the day, dancing in the bow wake. For now enjoying the calmer sea state and falling asleep to the rumble of the engine and the gentle whooshing of the water on the hull.
Greetings from Lala Lemonshark
The brave crew is toughing it out and staying cheerful despite being tossed around. The engine is off and we are true sailing-main and jib. In the first 12 hours we saw two pods of Orca and four humpback whales, two of which were 20 yards off the starboard beam!