Current Time: 3AM EST
Current Position: North 40 degrees, 07 minutes West 70 degrees 27 minutes
Hi, Everyone.
We are socked in. I can only see about 100 feet all around the boat. We are in a heavy shipping area. I am on watch and using radar to thread my way between ships that are nothing more than small green blobs on the radar screen. There are other green specks on the radar screen – waves, mostly – but they move around, while the ships appear in the same basic place each time the radar scans around (except for the ship’s movement and position relative to us), every two seconds or so. They are also usually bigger, little blobs instead of scattered specks.
I wish I could write to you tonight, but writers do, then write. Tonight I must do. Another screen needs my full attention.
I’m sorry, please accept my apologies. I will catch up with you, probably tomorrow when the fog has lifted (hopefully) and we can actually see again. We are 90 miles from Beavertail Lighthouse in Jamestown, doing about 4 knots with the starboard engine.
We had a busy day, sailing through a storm and winds as high as 25, and big waves. Lots of surfing. Lots of sail adjusting, even to the point where we had no mainsail up at all, and sailing just on the jib. Of course, then the wind eased. It was like that all day. Set everything up for the new conditions. Go inside and try to get dry. Conditions change. Go outside again. Repeat.
But we are fine, preparing to make landfall, most likely this weekend. The question is Saturday or Sunday, day or night. We don’t know yet.
The boat is much, much cleaner. She got a good rinse. Everything that could be washed clean, without elbow grease, was. Still more elbow grease needed to remove all of the Sahara Dust and rust spots.
Thanks for your understanding and pray for me to avoid those little green blobs while the poor Captain gets some well-deserved rest. I had to roust him several times during his night and daytime sleep on Friday, to reef the mainsail or ask him if my strategy was sound.
I think I have the answer to the “did you lose weight?” question. It’s much colder tonight. I’m wearing my usual pair of jeans for the first time in months, and they’re pretty loose. What should we call this, the “8,000-Mile Sea Voyage Diet”? “Only for the adventurous, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Get wet! Get tired! Get skinnier!”
Don’t worry, we’ll get through this, just like we got through everything else on this trip.
Much love,
Philip and Kristin