Location: Underway to Fernando
A good day is any, which begins with a good old-fashioned red sunrise and ends with a golden sunset. Today was one such good day. Anything can happen in between, but in ones memory of the day, the romance of a sunrise/sunset at sea trumps in the memory bank. Nicole and I shared a single cup of coffee to dunk prized Ouma Muesli Bolletjies rusks while catching up on bow watch. Sonneblom knows this is as good a breakfast for me as any! Watch team 3 give the deck a good scrub, and the boys air out some dirty laundry after giving it a good wash, all before lunch. The galley was eerily quiet at around 1130, and I was sure something had gone terribly wrong, that someone had tragically overslept, which would mean no lunch for this hungry crew. But lo! Darien had been elbow-deep in frozen berries and lemon poppy seed bread (cake) dough (batter) well into the previous night, so she was well ahead of the game. In fact, she was so on the ball that she timed the sending up of frozen berries immaculately, passing them through the gopher hatch just in time to be served right away before becoming a warm, gooey crimson mush in this baking tropical air. The meal was a HIT, however, with cool berries, crunchy with some added muesli, chopped pineapple, and the stunning lemon poppy seed bread (cake).
Kackies seamanship class discussed three bearing fixes, using three different coastal features to take compass bearings to triangulate your position in a fix on the chart. There comes with ocean sailing a distinct lack of coastal features with which to take bearings, so this is all theoretical at this point, though the Chesapeake Bay has been very, very well studied by now. Well soon be able to get some good practice with hand-bearing compasses, though, as we head toward the Caribbean. Megs oceanography class followed with a lecture on Coriolis, the physics trickster who says to water and wind, Oh! You want to go straight? Nope, take a turn instead! This has been fun to apply to the principles driving the winds and currents, which have helped us make it this far across the Atlantic. My own Master of Yachts theory class followed with our intro to Meteorology, where we discussed the principles behind wind, forecasting, and again that tricky devil, Coriolis! This section has begun, of course, because everybody has successfully passed the hardest of the PSCT exams, COLREGS, and Rules for Preventing Collisions at Sea with its staggering 90% pass grade. Proud teacher right here Dinner prep was more true to the norm with a sizzling galley, which might have resembled a commercial kitchen in every sense. Naan was frying, various chicken tikka masalas were simmering away, and the galley was a blur of activity, heavily contrasting this mornings serenity. The results were marvelous again, with credit for the Naan here going to Kiki. During cleanup, Eli got what was coming to him as a gopher. Hed been pitting the dishies on deck against the chefs in the galley by acting as a troublesome conduit of information between decks. But by dinner the chefs with Darien and dishies with Shane had wisened up, each equipped with a walkie talkie vhf radio, they managed to bypass the broken telephone Eli all together! Finally, the aforementioned golden sunset sank through the horizon with its dazzling palette of colors in tow.
The wind has abated altogether, and the iron horses thunder away, inching us closer to Brazil at 160 odd miles a day while averaging six and a half knots. We expect to reach Fernando de Noronha on the morning of the 26th. The little wind that there is blows from directly behind us at the same speed that were moving, so the resultant apparent wind speed is near zero, and the vessel becomes a 112ft two-masted oven. TGFAC!!!! Thank goodness for Air Conditioning! We cannot run this indefinitely, but weve become efficient at cooling the boat down every time the generator is needed to make water, bake a cake, or charge the batteries. Now, as I write this, it may be time for a jersey!