PPJ Day 9
11 April 2016 | The Pacific Ocean
Vandy
Sunday was one of those sunlight-sparkling-on-the-water, white-puffy-clouds, friendly-following-seas, dependable-tradewinds kind of sailing days. Really good. After checking the latest weather reports in the morning, we put up our spinnaker and took off downwind, not taking it down until just before sunset. It didn't act up today. But I still don't trust it. I have an interesting relationship with our spinnaker: I like what it can do for me, but I don't like the way it behaves. It's like a bad romance.
We didn't have to fix anything today! Yay!
I spent the day trying to correlate and cross-reference the data from the all the different types of weather forecasts we receive, to figure out which direction we should go. It was interesting and fun. I also did a load of laundry. I was hoping that the boat motion was flat enough, but apparently it wasn't, because our little washing machine had a hard time getting a spin cycle going without going off-kilter. I repacked the laundry in the drum a few times, but it still wasn't working. So I gave up and hung the laundry on the lines as-is. It was mostly dry, anyway.
Last night, Eric and I both spent a few hours during our watches playing Avoid the Squall. Mostly successfully. All you have to do to win is (1) outmaneuver the squalls, (2) outrun the squalls, or (3) outlast the squalls. But when they pop up right in front of you, there's nothing you can do. They win. You get wet. And maybe blown around a little bit. So we got a little wet and blown around a little bit last night from one squall, but the rest of the night was pretty quiet.
After spending many hours observing and contemplating the goings-on in the ocean, from our cockpit, Eric says that he's figured out how things work for the creatures who live in the ocean. Here is The Law of the Sea, according to Eric: If something is 30% or less of your size, eat it. If it's more than 130% of your size, swim away from it. If it's between 30 and 130% of your size, ignore it completely. (I would add, If it's between 30 and 130% of your size and is the same species, try to mate with it. But that's just me.) Now you know how things work in the ocean. You're welcome.
Here's a fish story for you. Last night about 1 am, as I was sitting on the cockpit coaming, looking out across the ocean as we cruised along, something wet and slimy and distinctly fishy-smelling went Splork! against the side of my face. It then ricocheted over the side and fell into the ocean. Well, isn't that special? I came below and washed my face - twice. During my next watch, I picked a fish scale out of my hair. Eeuw. I took a shower this morning.
Deck Check: 5 flying fish, no squid Miles in last 24 hours: 150 Miles total: 1335 Miles to go: 1545