Today is an awesome day! I had some deep deep sleep last night for an hour here and hour there, but actually spent more time in the rack than ever before!! Having all the fail-safes in order certainly give peace of mind. There is this thing called "watchman" that once set, turns the radar on every 20 minutes, scans for boats inside a set guard zone (mine is 6 miles) and shuts off to standby mode to save battery power....and yes Terry....I did figure something out on my own....FINALLY!!!! Gotta tell ya folks, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to electronics, must work on it.

SO, at 3am I got up due to the howling winds and shut down the engine...main up only, 16kts out of NW and I was doing a downwind sleigh ride at 5.5-6.5 kts! WOW, what a rush! Traveling for free on god's wind and also using it for power as I have a wind generator! I woke up to glorious sunrise (oh, yeah...moon was epic last night...looked like someone covered it with oatmeal and then backlit it), winds backed down to 8-10, low seas (5' and less) and I'm finally hungry.

To celebrate my first real day at sea under sail, I cleaned house a little and cooked up some starbucks in these really clever VIA packets you get now, just add 8oz h20 and you are in business....muffins are in oven perfectly brown and ready for xtra crunchy Jiff...man am I living the life now?? .. I decided to warm up my IPOD which is plugged into the stereo and crank out some Sinatra (rico's favorites CD...thanks John!) and as I was dancing around in my skivvies (literally) and belting out my Mom's famous Karaoke song :"That Ol Black Magic"...visualize dancing in pitching seas down below...I grab a hot muffing encapsulated in peanut butter, and SPLAT! upside down on the deck it goes.....hot gooey, buttery junk rite on the floor. So as a good, non wasteful sailor would do...I scooped it up, shook it off and took a big ol bite rite out of it....HMMMM DAD...still tastes a little like soap! (read blog)

Now that I'm fed, beveraged and smelly...time for a shower!!...I feel human again, now on deck sans the sivvies, arms in the air yelling..."YEEEAAAAHH!!!!! As loud as I can, hoping Neptune hears my thanks for such an awesome awesome day!

Ok, I'm clean now, got clothes on (sorry for the previous visual) and wanting to figure out where I am, and what is the weather got planned for me and my little ship? Turn on the SSB radio after researching for hours last night for the best net's to follow, went to a specific channel and BAM! I could hear real humans! I'm not alone!! After everyone was done chatting they asked for any other or new stations, so I timidly keyed up the mike (secretly hoping nobody would answer)...and blurted out: KE7UAB, MARITIME MOBILE.....and immediately the controller responded, "yes KE7UAB" Holy crap! What do I do now?? Well the mike fright kept me nervous but the guys were really nice and said my signal was a strong 6 (whatever the hell that means) I replied the same. They shot me around the net like everyone wanting to hold the new baby in a hospital. One dude was in IDAHO!! the other in San Diego and one i n San Fran. Thanks Bruce..good job on the installation! The guys invited me to check in every morning but friday at 0800. Nice to know someone has your back and can give some weather insight at least.

Today has been a real triumph for me.

I think I just may be doing this thing!! take care all, talk at cha again soon!