Yahooie! We are officially half way there!
My, but this is a big, huge, rolly ocean.
We are at 6 degrees north. It is hot and steamy and you just wouldn’t believe the smell that is growing by the day inside the boat; it oozes and swirls around in the air from our bodies, the dinette cushions, our beds, the garbage, the head, dirty dishes in the sink. We had a little wind squall last night that brought a sprinkle of rain and are definitely hoping to collect enough rain soon to give us all a badly needed freshwater rinse (we are saving the water in our tanks just for drinking and we don’t have a watermaker). The smells and heat — and nonstop rolling — gave all the adult crew another bout of sea-nausea these past few days but we seem to be better today. I managed to not only bake a loaf of sourdough bread this morning (Del Viento, your travelling starter is happy as can be back out here!). I also got an entire pot of last-of-the-zucchini soup going in the pressure cooker just a few minutes ago without having to run outside and put my face in the wind like a puppy dog every few minutes.
The girls are handling the trip amazingly well so far. As I suspected, Leah is thoroughly enjoying the extra time playing games, reading and just talking with her parents. She is very proud that she’s sailing across this ocean and loves to find our position on our various maps and globes. I can tell Holly is pretty much done with all this based on the increasing frequency of temper tantrums, but then maybe she’s just being 3 1/2. We did sit in the cockpit yesterday afternoon and reenacted the entire “Gato con Botas” movie which she was thrilled about and I probably wouldn’t have found time to do except for being out here. Holly tells me she’s looking forward to a playground, ice-cream, and sleeping in her own bed when we arrive at the islands. For what we are asking both girls to cope with, it’s pretty amazing to see how, mostly, happy they are out here.
The NE trades continue to blow steadily at 15-20 knots and we are rocking and rolling, night and day, south.
Total miles at noon: 1323
Miles since yesterday: 129
Number of times we’ve had to fix broken reef hardware on the boom: 2
Gallons of fresh water used to mist ourselves in the cockpit (well worth every drop!): 0.15
