PPJ Day 14
16 April 2016 | The Pacific Ocean
Vandy
Two weeks out, with maybe another week to go, we've become accustomed to the constant unpredictable motion that characterizes our life these days. Swells, wind waves, wind, boat motion all combine to make every move aboard SCOOTS a calculated trajectory. Eric laughed yesterday as he watched from the cockpit as I crossed the cabin first one way and then the other in rapid succession, as SCOOTS rolled. Miscalculations are rewarded with cruise bruises. Hipbones and butts seem particularly susceptible to these, but elbows are not far behind. We each have a multicolored collection. It reminds me of kids with those colorful fake tattoos, only none of mine look much like unicorns.
It was a pretty quiet day aboard SCOOTS. We think that we're south of the ITCZ now, as we had consistent NE winds and hardly any squalls at all. In fact, our satellite pictures and weatherfaxes later confirmed this. YAY!!! We took showers on our swim step, which is always a fun affair on a moving boat. It's important to hang onto the boat with one hand at all times. The best part is getting to dry off, on deck in the sun, afterwards.
We had two high points of our day: One was having roasted chicken for dinner, and rice pudding for dessert. We were looking forward to it all day, and weren't disappointed. It's funny how things can take on different proportions out here. The other was having a pod of short-finned pilot whales swim alongside SCOOTS for a little while. I had never seen these animals before, and it was a thrill to have them so close.
I keep seeing shearwaters but I haven't figured out which species they are yet. I'll do that today. Maybe.
We should be crossing the Equator sometime in the next day or so. That's really exciting.
Deck Check: no casualties Miles in last 24 hours: 156, for an average speed of 6.5 knots Total miles traveled: 2050 Miles to go: 830