Tuesday, May 13, 2014

May 13 Position Report

5/13/14 Wandering Dolphin POS

GMT 1200
09 08.00N 098 53.83W
COG 260T
SOG 5kt
NTN 92 nautical miles
DTG 3577 nautical miles

Wind: W6-10
Temp: 86.4f
Pressure: 29.55
Current favorable 1.5 to 2 knots
Sky: mostly clear
Seas: 2 ft NW swell

Good Morning,
Yesterday was a great day.  The wind filled in in the morning and we were able to sail slowly all day.  It was a fun day.  The kids did some school and then everyone just kicked back and read or played games.  The sun was shining all day so the solar kept everything charged up.  After so many days, lately, of jumping up to reef for squalls and working the boat it was nice to have clear sky's and a steady, if not light, wind blowing.  It allowed us to catch up on sleep and relax.
Around noon Beck decided to make some bread and I woke up to the smell of fresh bread!  With the breeze blowing through the open hatches the boat even stayed pretty cool.

We had rice with sugar and milk for breakfast, fresh bread with butter, jelly and peanut butter for lunch, and burritos with black bean and green chili, corn salsa smothered in cheese for supper.

Just after supper the wind died again and the seas went glassy smooth.  The sky was clear and the moon almost full and we could clearly see Saturn low on the eastern horizon, Mars right beside the moon and Jupiter high in the western sky.  The auto pilot went on strike because we had no steerage so we just tied off the wheel and let her drift.  Around 2:00am the wind started to fill in again from the west and we slowly made way again.  We are a bit further south than I would like to be but the wind is forecast to move to the North today so we can then head up some more and get back up on a heading for Clipperton.

The kids are doing so well out here.  Today will make it 10 days on this voyage which matches our longest voyage as a family to date back when we sailed from Oriental, North Carolina to Nassau.

Kanyon still has not discovered the world of books so he is a little bored but I have high hopes that this will be the trip where he discovers that reading is fun.  Benny is really loving "Fablehaven" but he has too much energy to sit still for long and he always craves attention so sometimes when Kaleb is reading Ben will begin to pester him just to get attention, pretty soon I hear a scuffle start and Ben is being run off by both Kanyon and Kaleb.  He then seeks out his sister and begins to make noises that he knows she hates.  He will "meow" like a cat or "chirp" like a bird or just click his tongue until finally she erupts in a volcanic hail of fists and flails on him until he cries for mercy.  Sometimes I see this happening in time to move Ben up into the cockpit with me before he causes too much unrest.  I try to engage him in the sailing of the boat or the view, looking for whales or whatever.  Maybe today he can catch a fish.

Thanks again for all of your messages!
Carl:  thanks for the naval history.  I shared it with the boys.
Jim V., Aline, Jared, and Shannon thanks for the riddles!
Cave, thanks for the bread recipe... We like the name "cavebread."

This morning is beautiful and the wind is actually moving us along so we are happy.  I have a few boat maintenance things to do today.  I will run the watermaker and fix an electrical connection for the stern light.  I will also be walking the deck looking for chafe on the running rigging and checking on the standing rigging.  I also think it's time to put a meat line in the water!

Hope you all have a great day!

Sailin'!
Captain Tofer, Becca, EmilyAnne, Kanyon, Kaleb, and Buggin' Ben

1 comment:

  1. I got a response from Jimmy on Facebook, it seems he is still alive! I told him to try and contact you. This was his reponse: Huh?

    She can't

    My mother is hundreds of miles offshore in te Pacific Ocean lol

    ReplyDelete