Indoor Play Day

Day 127/3 this leg

Noon Position: 45 47S 156 56E

Course/Speed: ESE7

Wind: NW20

Bar: 1006

Sea: NW5

Sky: RAIN!

Cabin Temperature: 60

Water Temperature: 53

Sail: One reef working jib, One reef main; wind port quarter

Noon to Noon Miles Made Good: 133

Miles this leg: 428

Avg. Miles this leg: 143

Miles since departure: 17,683

Rain began just after midnight. Heavy at times but always steady, it continued till mid afternoon. Luckily, the wind was constant for the Southern Ocean, moving from NW to NNW and cycling between mid teens and high twenties. This allowed me a delicious indoor day, mostly. I got to sit in the pilot house in my down jacket and sheepskin boots and watch the mantled albatross cruise by; even in the gloom that counted for light, his beak, yellow atop, black below, and his sooty gray face was precisely, brightly marked to the point of seeming airbrushed. How can such perfection of color and shape be eked from a diet of squid?

In the afternoon I wrote cards to my wife, whose birthday is tomorrow. I’m pleased with my “90 years old” card,”chuffed” would say Joanna. No, my beloved is not 90. I’ll let her share the interior if she so chooses.

In the early afternoon, the day did an about face. Within the course of a few minutes, the rain ceased and the wind shifted ninety-degrees, from NW to SW, without changing velocity. Suddenly we were pitching into the minimal swell, and I was scrambling on deck to get us gybed around. That was the day’s exercise.

Now we run before the wind on a lightly reefed headsail and make an easy 6 – 7 knots.

Breakfast was oatmeal a plum and an avocado; lunch, a can of soup with bread and cheese. Last night, a big stew of tomatoes, black beans, salmon, and mussels all atop polenta. Appetite is returning.

Tonight between squalls a three quarter moon silvers the oily, heaving sea.