More Fast, More Birds

May 4, 2019

Day 211

Noon Position: 13 25N  42 29W

Course(t)/Speed(kts): NW 7

Wind(t/tws): NExE 12

Sea(t/ft): NE 3

Sky: Altocumulus and beginning to look squally

10ths Cloud Cover: 7

Bar(mb): 1018+

Cabin Temp(f): 84

Water Temp(f): 78

Relative Humidity(%): 66

Sail: Working jib and main, reaching, starboard.

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 165

Miles since departure: 28,505

Avg. Miles/Day: 135

Leg North Miles: 5,555

Leg North Days: 45

Avg. Miles/Day: 123

Another solid mileage day. All I do is tweak sails in a bit, out a bit; adjust Monte’s tiller line in a bit, out a bit. And for that, Mo … scoots briskly up and to the left.

Can’t tell what the weather wants. Clear for a bit, then a heavy sky, even squally, this though it’s cooling, not warming. The barometer is up and down between 1014 and 1018, is never still. The wind, however, is blessedly constant.

Cool enough now to wear a shirt, to even sleep in a shirt. Ah, the luxuries.

—

Mo was visited by a pair of White-Tailed Tropicbirds today. They circled a few times, chattering all the while about something, “kraik! kraik!” And then they flew off.

The resulting photos have, I think, a painterly quality to them; thus so many.

—

I’ve taken a vacation from the work list since Cape Horn. But, predictably, the work list has not done the same. Rather it keeps churning out items, which I dutifully write into the little orange book for when I return.

Today, I dived back into boat chores, starting with the primary manual bilge pump that leaked all over the cabin floor last I used it. Disassembly showed no flaws, and bilge pumping today produced no leaks.

So it goes.

That said, in the process of removing the companionway ladder so I could get at the pump, I broke one of the fasteners used to hold the ladder in place. Repairing that took more time than work on the pump.

So it goes.