Thursday, June 9

Have you ever seen the little sign sometimes put up in a bar that says: "Free Beer Tomorrow"? It's very cute because you know that if anyone actually fell for it, they would return, and find that they needed to return, well, again tomorrow. And then it goes. On and on. That is a little how we feel right now. For a while now, we have been getting these sailing sessions that fizzle out, and we have to wait for the next one. (Yes, we are drifting again. Compare our position from yesterday to today. Pretty sad, eh?), and the forecasts always seem to show that, if we can only get another 100 miles north, there will be wind. Then we get north, run out of wind, find the sign that says "Nice sailing Wind 100 miles north". Free beer tomorrow. I'm simplifying, of course. This is just the resultant feeling of sailing through the latitudes where things are not so orderly as the trade winds are.

But, we like to think that it is not really quite this bad. In fact, even though we are drifting today, things point to us being able to sail tomorrow. Then, they go light again for a day, but maybe, and hopefully sailable, then, Voila! The wind fills in. At that point, it is good sailable wind as far as the forecasts show. Free Beer Tomorrow? We hope not.

Now, it's been a beautiful day today for us. The rain from yesterday is gone, the wet things have been laid out and dried. The temperature is comfortable, we are charging, Elisabeth is baking bread in a nice stable galley. We are happy again. The blues have been replaced by humor. These will all be happy memories of a very romantic time, and serves to let us know just how in love we are. Sorry, but it's true. For us, one and one, don't make two. One and one make one. (Mark, Lolo, recognize that one?)

We are in a high pressure area. It is 1022 millibars as I type. (A record for our recordings.) It will pass, but for now, we are relaxing in our rolly anchorage. We are not exaggerating, and we do not respect sailors that go out and exaggerate their conditions. We find it distasteful and misleading to their friends, family, people trying to offer helpful information, people trying to get an idea of what it really might be like out there so they can plan their own voyages. So, this is our truth. This is what we have, and we are dealing with it. There are positive points to all of this too, that we must keep in mind. Our good friend Bob related to us this morning, that our stalling out is keeping us from getting spanked by the worst of a nasty blow that is going to happen north of us come Monday. So, maybe this is, in fact, our free beer? Something to be happy about.

Oh, and the whales. We saw whales today. We were out in the sun, having our afternoon cocktail of water with lime juice, and we spotted whales. About three of them about one quarter mile away. Just swimming along heading south. B(eautiful.

Now go and (you know what I'm going to say, don't you?) Be Excellent to Each Other! Rod and Elisabeth, "Your Rock and Roll Argonauts" "Les Pirates d'Honneur"