Friday, January 10, 2014

Mahi Mahi Back On Menu

Midwatch 1-10-14 6:41 AM EST

The big news for this post is that fish is back on the dinner menu! We caught a nice eating size Mahi Mahi yesterday afternoon. Good chance we will get two nice meals out of this one. 

The down side is that we have been plagued with lots of squalls. Most of them are pretty benign in nature but some have had winds into the mid to upper 20's. The main problem is that we don't want to set Big Blue in these conditions and when we aren't in a squall our boat speed drops annoyingly. The wind directions switch rapidly and constantly in these conditions which means no napping on watch. As I am writing this a squall has just passed and now the wind is nearly non-existent but a 3-4 meter swell/wave pattern remains...not fun! 

We had to switch propane tanks yesterday but we still have lots thanks to a kind gentleman from the Canaries/Germany that said he didn't need his US tanks anymore. 

We think that the wind may drop to almost nothing this weekend. We should be square in the trade wind belt now but sometimes this happens. 

I mentioned the possibility of going for a swim and Kim says that scares her and she doesn't like the idea. The water feels really warm now...I am tempted. You all will have to wait and see how this one plays out. 

Not much else to report but here are some fun stats: These are all "straight line" distances not actual distances sailed which of-course are much greater.  

We are currently: 
3250 Nautical Miles from our northern most position in Norway 
2250 Nautical Miles from Crosshaven Ireland 
1185 NM from the Finn whale my Dad and I saw in the Azores 
2600 NM from Beaufort, North Carolina 
2435 NM from our dock in Harpswell, Maine 

Current Midwatch Position: 
11:00 UTC 
19 Degrees 12.300 N 
031 Degrees 44.494 W 
Course 235 Degrees True 
Speed variable Poled Out Genoa Only 
Partly sunny with scattered squalls 

Bob, Kim, Anna, Finn and Mark

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