Had the privilege of watching another beautiful sunset last night and an equally beautiful sunrise this morning. There is nothing quite as dramatic as watching the sun rise or set over water. Each and every time is special and unique. Of course, laying in the cockpit and looking up at the zillions of stars is pretty awesome too. The Milky Way is so thick and bright out here and shooting stars abound. Some of the stars are so bright we mistake them for ships.
We are about 700 miles from home and about 250 miles from the Bahamas rightnow. There are some large sea swells that have started to roll in as a result of weather out near Bermuda. They are beautiful (so far), but at 15-20feet high, they may not be that attractive after a couple of hours of UP and DOWN and LEFT and RIGHT and shouts of DUCK!! from our crewmates.
W
e try to set our sails pretty conservatively during the night so if a squall comes up, we won't have to try to raise or lower sails in the dark. Our boat is different from others this size-- the main sail has be raised and lowered from the mast on deck, not from the cockpit. To get out there, the crew ember takes the harness strap that is connected to his life preserver and attaches it to the boat at different points as he walks
forward. (As long as that crew member is not Fogger who is stubborn about wearing his harness. Tisk, tisk.) With the harness, if a big wave comes aboard and washes the crew member overboard, he may not go too far as long as he is tethered. As Fogger would say: Going overboard is stupid; just don't do it. So we won't.
We've had a couple intense squalls run up on us. Once or twice we weren't able to shorten sails. When that happens, it's a fast, fast ride (15kts at one point!!). It takes a lot of muscle power to keep the boat under control with 50knot winds!! The stressful part when it first hits probably only lasts less than 2 minutes, but it feels much, much longer. Once the bulk of the squall passes, it's amazing how fast Sunsets can actually progress.
Some of the fleet have reported seeing whales and dolphins. One boat had a seabird sit in the cockpit for a couple hours. Besides George's mahi-mahi yesterday, the only fauna we can report on is a stowaway stink bug!! We found him sitting on our ditch bag. Guess he wanted a guarantee that he'd get in the life raft if it was deployed. He's fish food now. [One less stink bug to chase out of your house, Anita!]
It's actually kind of lonely out here. Because we are a "fast" boat, the rest of the fleet is a bit behind us. We have seen NO ONE since we entered the Gulfstream. And we haven't heard anyone on the VHF radio either. In fact, we've only seen one freighter. That was late last night. Our AIS system alerted us that the freighter would be dangerously close to us if we stayed on our same course. Howard slowed the boat a little to let the freighter pass while I called them on the VHF radio to make them aware of our intentions. The last thing we needed was both of us slowing down to avoid the hit and then hitting each other. And, when we're going fast, it's surprisingly loud. The cockpit is blanketed by the sound of the water from our wake. You really have to speak up to hear each other. And down below, the occasional crashing as Sunsets cuts through the waves is both loud and disconcerting.
This afternoon, the big swells are here. Ed is hand steering under Fogger's watch. Steering through waves like this is as much an art as it is a science I think. You have to feel where the boat is going to go. You can feel her lift up on the swell, the wind catches her at the crest and spins her a bit and then she slides back down on the back of the swell. It takes strength
and talent to keep the sails full of wind so you can control the boat while all this is happening.
Swells make down-below living quite a challenge. Especially challenging is using the stove. The stove is on a "gimbal" so it pivots back and forth so that the food inside of it stays level. It's really challenging trying to get something in or out of the oven when it's wildly pitching. It really does take two people. See, cooking is NOT easy, I don't care what anyone says.
Gotta go. The sun is about to set and I don't want to miss it. And I have to get dinner going. I had planned for meatloaf tonight, but I simply cannot find the loaf in my freezer. [Janel--I think the scupper people took it.] So it's going to be chicken stir-fry of some sort and it's going to be served
in a bowl because it's way too rough to try to eat off a plate. Which reminds me, the foodies need a menu update:
Wednesday night: Jeff's pulled pork bbq and collard greens. hursday night: Janel's mock lasagna Today, for lunch: Pick your leftover (cause we had leftovers from every meal we served so far.)
More later.
Kelly aboard s/v Sunsets
N26-14 W68-18
