Underway
Friday, Jan 28, 2022
Latitude 22o 26’ N
Longitude 21o 08’ W
Halfway to Cabo Verdes
Underway
The night sky is bright with stars not usually visible. Orion shines brighter
than ever, yet ironically is more difficult to distinguish due to unfamiliar
stars intruding about his belt and shoulders. Brimmer is on watch, and I’ve
come below to catch up on my blogging. Today was our fourth day at sea, having
left midday Monday. That was a day earlier than originally planned to take
advantage of favorable winds.
The winds have been fair with following seas. While that sounds ideal, it
creates a pronounced rolling motion that is tough on the crew. Burke and
Dwight have both been battling sea sickness, with nowhere to go. Burke appears
to have recovered, eating a hearty dinner this evening, but Dwight is still
struggling with it and spent most of the day in his bunk.
Since writing the above, we’ve gone through a full watch cycle. At 9 PM I took
over Dwight’s shift to allow him time to recuperate but before midnight he
emerged from his cabin to reclaim his watch, cheerfully announcing that he was
feeling much better, and then proceeded to make himself a ham and cheese
sandwich before coming up on deck. At midnight Burke and Denise took over
for three hours, then Brimmer was back for the 3 AM-6 AM shift. At quarter of
six I groggily raised my head through the open hatch to see what to wear for my
turn just as the crescent moon rose to the east and in time for Brimmer to
point out the Southern Cross above our bow.
Once on watch I ran the engine for 15 minutes to run the engine compressor for
the freezer then another 15 to recharge the batteries. Cooling the
refrigerator/freezer and charging the batteries have become standard operating
procedures at the beginning of each three-hour shift. The sun rises late,
around 8 AM. For the past three days sunrise has been accompanied by Dolphins
that come and play around the boat for about 15 minutes and then head off for
wherever it is that Dolphins spend the day in the middle of a vast ocean.
P.S. This is a late entry because XGATE software that we use to transmit e-mails
via Iridium started giving an error message “Dialup Failed Error (8).” The
Iridium connection appears good, but the handshake with the XGATE software
fails. The help file says to contact Pivotel, the software provider, but that
is tough to do with no connection. Fortunately, our backup Iridium handheld
allowed us to call home, and my wife Kay contacted them on Friday. Not sure
what they did on their end, but it is working today, Monday Feb. 1.
P.P.S. We are now 20 miles off the coast of Cape Verdes. 17 Degrees 22 Minutes
North, 24 Degrees 38 Minutes West. Planning to be anchored before
dark.