I love it when the rare perfect day of sailing comes along offshore. Today has been one of those days. No the sun isn’t shining, and the seas aren’t calm. It’s cloudy and the seas are still running 12 to 16 feet. Why is it perfect then? We are sailing. Wow are we ever sailing. The wind is just off our starboard quarter blowing around 15 knots. We have all sail set and pulled out and those big waves are coming up right behind us. The boat lifts gently with each big swell and rides down the backside picking up a knot or two. The sails stay full and drawing pulling and pushing the boat to speeds never attained by my own boat. Right now we are cruising along at an average of 8 knots but often over 10 and sometimes 14 when we are riding down a wave. The sun isn’t shining but the air is warm, we are in shorts and flip flops again.
So what did we do today besides sail? This morning Dylan and I cleaned all of the salon windows. That’s a big job on this boat but it sure helps. The visibility is crucial as we use the salon as a pilot house when it is cold or rainy. With all of the salt built up on them from the storm the glare at night made them almost unusable so last night we spent our watches outside. The windows are nice and shiny now though. I was joking with Dylan about how the Captain was making the swabby clean the windows but he pointed out that at least the Captain was helping the swabby.
After we did some clean up chores I made some scrambles eggs with cheddar cheese melted over them and some fried ham and bagels with orange juice and coffee for breakfast. We joked about how that meal at Tickles in St Thomas would cost us like $50 bucks, more with the tip... cause one of the waitresses is a beautiful babe who I think deserves 30% to 50% tips if you ever go there.
After breakfast we listened to music and talked. We started looking for sailing songs on my iPod and playing them for Dylan and at some point John mentioned a song that had played on my iPod when it was on shuffle. He really liked the song and wanted to know who it was. The problem is that I wasn’t around when it played and I have 6428 songs on my iPod. We spent a couple of hours trolling through my iPod looking for the song and listening to others. I introduced him to one of my favorites, Chris De Burgh and we spent some time listening to some of his stuff. John told me about his own music he likes to write and shared stories from his life. At some point we began talking about books and humor and we discovered that both John and I are big fans of the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” Dylan laughed and said, “Hey I have a couple of those books with me!” He hadn’t read any yet so John and I started laughing and saying lines from the books.
At some point during our laughing and talking I decided to make some chicken salad, which turned out Great. I mixed canned white meat chicken with Miracle Whip and green apple chunks. We put it in Tortillas with lettuce... YUMMMM.
I just went back up on the tramp to put a nut on the bolt which I used to replace the lost pin from the shackle. I love it up there! It is so cool to look a foot down and see the water rushing by with the Cat up to speed like this. As the boat surfs down a wave the water rushes between the hulls and a roll of white water comes right by under your feet. Remember when I said in an earlier blog that this didn’t feel like sailing? Well when she gets up to her speed and kicks up her heels she’s quite a ride! I can’t believe that with 15 knots of wind we are speeding along at an average of 8 to 10 knots.
John just went down to take his afternoon nap and Dylan, with some prompting from the Captain decided to take his first shower since we left Norfolk... whew! He smells like roses now. He is sitting beside me now reading “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.”
Nickleback is rocking from the speakers and I have to say again, “I love a perfect day offshore!”
Thanks for the messages everyone! Christian, “Confidentially speaking, I’ve had these problems with the tides before!”
To all our friends in St Thomas, looks like we’ll see you on Thursday! Beck and I will be going to Enki for Sushi on Saturday anyone who would like to come along tell Beck and we’ll make a party of it.
Amazing how the crazy storm can turn into days like this one!
Captain Tofer, John and Dylan on-board the “Sweetest Thing”
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