The Jamaican Cloud Painter
04 June 2022
• (12.75n, 78.7w)
by robin
Struggling to stay awake can be the 4 AM watch or sometimes is it the most remarkable color show as the part of the planet we are rotates into the sunlight again. Today was a beauty.
I crawled out of our berth; Karl handed me my cup of tea. As Karl collapsed in the pile of pillows, I climbed the ladder to find the Milky Way wrapping around the edge of the jib (sail in front). A bright planet is tracing a long white streak behind us. Over the next hour the eastern sky lightens first the stars begin to fade - black turns to a dark blue with the first hint of pink surrounding the planet. Watching the colors, it is as if Marcia the Jamaican painter is brushing the clouds with orange then yellow. Singing in her stocking feet and carrying a fine brush she climbs to the top of her step ladder and first brushes fiery orange tints filling in the undersides of the towering cumulus. Slowly climbing down the ladder she adds fire tint to the sides of the clouds facing where the sun will rise from top to bottom. Climbing again to the top of the ladder, now with a pale yellow and a broad brush she paints over the orange with bold yellow strokes. Again she moves slowly from the top of the ladder to the floor. Al the time singing and tapping her sock covered toes. Next she turns her attention to the low grey puffy clouds that have been hanging around. Focusing on these grey polka dots she starts with the top of the clouds facing the sun first with a pale pink atop the grey then a yellow. When the sun emerges from the clouds one last broad splash of yellow, she is done for the morning. Some Jan Crittenden inspired sun salutations and dolphins complete the celebration of another morning.
We are grateful for any breeze as we have reached that huge area of calm in the models. The morning breeze moved us along at a gentle 5 knots. The day is hot as is the water 28.9C. By the afternoon we are heading towards Costa Rica. Clearly there will be some motoring in our future. We decide the arrive on Tuesday. Cannot get a salinity measurement when I tow the ctd but can when I put it in the sink. Increasing signs of shore. A bit of garbage, an aircraft we can actually hear, more ships moving to and from Panama and a school of fish feeding maybe tuna.
I love the connectivity the iridium text gives us with family. Hear Beryl is enjoying a conference in Belgium, Danielle succeeded in her Chocorua trail run including time to look at a Luna moth, appreciate the ongoing support from Julie, help with details from Justin and of course so importantly the quiet patient support David Bell provides.
During dinner the wind totally dies. The moon is now clearly reflecting in the water. We had been watching the wind drop and the focus of the cloud reflection improve all day. We had hoped to have a daytime becalming with swimming and underwater vehicular fun but the wind held till dark. We were now at 1-2 knots ground wind. We knew we would have to run the engine for part of this passage and now seems like a good time. Far enough offshore we are unlikely to encounter any fish traps. After my watch I crash in the forward berth. This was Beryl's on our first Transatlantic and most recently inhabited by Justin Danielle and 2 viszlas when they stayed with us before we left. Right now it is a bit of a storage area⦠guitars, mandolins, 2 folding bikes, an awning and a underwater vehicle (ROV). I tuck myself in between the ROV and the bikes and enjoy the breeze through the open hatch and the relative quiet away from the engine.
Bird Note#1: A bird flies right past Karl at tea time. He declares it a cormorant â�" I insist that they are coastal birds. Scouring Merlin, the bird as I am frustrated in finding anything when a noise makes me look us. There is a bird tail right over my head on the solar panel. Karl is right is a juvenile cormorant. The solar panel is not a stable perch and after posing for a photo or two the bird leaves.
Bird Note #2: Several brown boobies circle the boat. Brown bodies with the cigar shaped bodies.
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