Tuesday, May 6, 2014

May 6 Position Report

5/6/14 Wandering Dolphin POS

09 56.729 N  089 57.226 W
COG 262T
SOG 4.7kt

Wind: NW 6-8
Temp: 87.4F
Pressure: 29.6
Current +.5kt

Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: 1ft
Motor: off
Sails: main and genoa set

Good Morning,

When I came up for my 4:00 a.m. watch I was happy to discover the flag gently flapping.  Emily and I filled the day tank with fuel and pulled out the genoa and then we shut down the engine.  Wow! Our engine is not very loud but it sure was nice to hear only water rushing by the hull again. I am not sure how long this will hold but for the last two hours it has been nice.

It's been interesting to see the family settle in for the long haul here.  There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of negative feedback yet.  The kids have enjoyed the days off school with the engine running it has been game central on WD.  Today will be our first try at actual offshore school time.  In the past our passages have always been 10 days or less so we just had those days off school but with this long one they will have to do school.  One of our "offshore friends" Aline, and also our buddy Richard indirectly gave me a pretty good idea yesterday.  Aline sent us some word association riddles and Richard sent some history info about the chronometer (love the idea that a chronometer is like keeping Greenwich time in a bottle) and both were great for the kids.  If any of you would like to send little educational things of interest in your area of expertise, I will share them with the kids in school.

I have to admit that I was beginning to worry about wind last night.  This ocean is SO big and I began to think that perhaps we might end up floating around out here for months. The breeze this morning put my mind at ease.  I would take this light wind for the whole trip and be happy. Right now there are four frigate birds wheeling around the boat.  I wonder what they are thinking.  Two HUGE black dolphins came by earlier and played beside the boat for EmilyAnne.  She loves Dolphins more than anyone I know so it made her day.

Answers and comments from Iridium messages:

Aline, Jim V. And Richard,  thanks to you guys for keeping us occupied and informed throughout the day... Hey Aline.. The girls loved the " news" portion of your messages yesterday, any more Hollywood Gossip would be appreciated.

Brian; Our course is 10 latitude out to Clipperton Atoll.  We have a great weather router who keeps us in favorable currents and wind and this route gives us clockwise current from three warm eddies to the north of us.  We are also looking forward to stopping in Clipperton.  It is an uninhabited Atoll and for a couple of days it will belong to the crew of Wandering Dolphin.  After Clipperton we will begin to make our way north west toward Hawaii.

Andy: the kids answer to your riddle, "What do you call a cow with no legs?"  GROUND BEEF!

Galia: thanks for sharing your dreams with us!  It sounds like an awesome adventure you have planned!  We're so happy to hear that you are going to be doers and not just dreamers!

Don with "Sailing Life":  Hey thanks for reading our blog and we would be very pleased if you passed on the "Offshore Kids" post to your readers.  Benny is especially proud of that one.  Please put a link to the blog and our Facebook page!  Thanks!

Herman: Thanks for the msgs this morning I especially liked the comment about Noah's wife Joan of Arc.  LOL

What we are eating: Yesterday
Breakfast:  pancakes
Lunch: Tuna salad sandwiches, Beck mixes in cabbage and it's GREAT!
Supper:  BBQ burgers, cooked on the grill, with sun chips.

Ok time to get everyone going on school. Have a Great Day,
Captain Tofer, Beck, Em, Kanyon, Kaleb, Ben

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