Tuesday, June 3, 2014

June 3 Position Report

6/3/14 Wandering Dolphin POS
GMT 1600
16 46.72N 141 32.81W
COG 280T
SOG 6.5kt
DMG 149 nautical miles
DTG 792 nautical miles

Wind: ENE 15-18
Temp: 85f
Pressure: 29.7
Sky: mostly cloudy
Seas: 8-10ft Sails: double reefed main, full jib, no stays'l

It is the 3rd of June.  We left Costa Rica on the 3rd of May.  We have spent one full month at sea with no one but ourselves and our boat and water as far as the eye can see.  We have sighted 10 ships in that time, almost all of them along the coast.  The last ship we picked up on AIS was almost 3 weeks ago.  This month we used the water in our tanks, water we caught, and a very small amount of water we made with the watermaker.  Our Honda generator went through 5 gallons of gas, our engine used 100 gallons of diesel, mostly in the doldrums. The vast majority of our power needs were met by our two 135 Kyocera panels and backed up by our D400 wind generator.  We still have a lot of canned food and noodles and rice left in storage, probably enough for another twenty days of pretty miserable eating hahaha.

One month.  Less than one week until landfall in Hilo. To say we are excited would be a gross understatement.

Yesterday we had a pretty fun day.  Becky made bread and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and lunch and I made chicken with dumplings for supper.  We started up the generator and played Halo as a family.  There must be some catharsis for kids when they can hunt down their parents and see them almost helpless as they run in circles or drive cars off cliffs while the kids literally dance and bounce around turning invisible because they have special gear.  They laugh at us and with us but also they try their best to take care of us and help us, if one of the mean little offspring is being overly psychotic and won't let Mom or Dad re spawn the others hunt that sibling down.
It was my movie pick last night so I picked a movie from way back that I'm not even sure why we own.  I must have picked it up in the dollar bin and I couldn't remember it.  It is called "Proof" staring Anthony Hopkins, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Glylynhall.   It's about... Math... Kaleb said,
"Oh man... Do people actually sit around and do that?"  It was pretty sorry entertainment I have to admit.  I have also been reading Patrick McManis stories to the kids. I always make different voices for all of the characters and the kids get a big charge out of it.

It's still cloudy today but there are patches of blue sky and the seas have died down a bit.  Maybe we can get a good solar charge and dry some stuff out on deck today.

Someone asked about my fishing stuff.  I only use hand lines and they are set up with 500 pound test for everything.  They have some dropped line pulled in with a bungee cord that stretches out if something gets on the line.  Because there is no way for a fish to run out like with a reel the test has to be that high and most of the time we have no problem and the fish are manageable but this time what ever is out there following us, and I am pretty sure it's a big shark, it's big enough to just bite through the steel leader.  It has only broke the line itself one time and on another occasion it took the lure but left a bent up ruined hook, all of the other times it actually broke the steel itself cleanly.

Hope you all have a great day!
Captain Tofer, Becky, EmilyAnne, Kanyon, Kaleb, and Benny

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