Weed, Solar, Pasta

May 1, 2019

Day 208

Noon Position: 07 48N  36 18W

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

Wind(t/tws): NE 10 – 12

Sea(t/ft): NE 5

Sky: Puffy cumulus and haze

10ths Cloud Cover: 3

Bar(mb): 1017

Cabin Temp(f): 86

Water Temp(f): 80

Relative Humidity(%): 72

Sail: Working jib and main, main one reef, reaching on starboard

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 168

Miles since departure: 28,010

Avg. Miles/Day: 135

Leg North Miles: 5,060

Leg North Days: 42

Avg. Miles/Day: 120

Another fast day. We are on Mo’s favorite tack, wind abeam. And we must be benefiting from the Guiana Current, which runs NW along the Brazilian coast at one to two knots, so says the paper chart.

Weed continues to be a problem. I see a thick line of it every 30 seconds or so and am clearing the Watt and Sea hydrogenerator prop every half hour. Probably should clear more often. Actually, today I didn’t run the Watt and Sea at all and am resigned to charging by engine every few days starting tomorrow and until we are well north.

Yes, Mo has two 100-watt solar panels on the aft rails, and sun we have in juicy abundance. But Mo requires about 75 amps of power a day for standard operations, and the most the panels typically produce during daylight is about 30 amps. One issue is that the sun angles are often wrong, and on our present tack the sun goes behind the mast in the early afternoon and never quite returns.

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Pasta.

Do you know why I crave pasta?

Ashore I like pasta just fine but don’t go out of my way to find it. At sea, and especially of late, I can’t get enough.

Because of the heat now, I rarely cook, opting instead to eat dinner’s stew or chili or corn or beans cold and right out of the can.

But for pasta I will upset this pattern, even though it requires two simmering pots to steam up the cabin: one for noodles and one for sauce.

My favorite sauce includes a) a can of eggplant in tomato sauce and garlic; b) a can of stewed tomatoes; c) a can of cubed beef; d) more garlic, onions and herbs in the form of dried; e) a dollop of curry paste. Let that simmer for twenty minutes. Delicious.

But however good the sauce, it is secondary to the noodle–the thing that drives the craving. And not the healthy, whole wheat noodle, of which I have scads. Oh no, rather, I always reach for the standard, all-white spaghetti or penne.

Typically I boil up enough for two dinners, but find I must be careful or I’ll eat all of it in one sitting. I get on a roll. There’s something in the toothsomeness and the slight sweetness that makes one forkful follow another.

My record thus far–not that I’ve been attempting to set a record–is the consumption of a full pound of dried pasta in two days.

This stuff I could eat by itself or with a touch of butter and a light sprinkling of cheese. The sauce is a pain in the neck; I make myself make it so that dinner has some nutrient besides carbohydrates.

In fact, I think this is what drives the craving, the carbs, which are one quick step away from eating sugar.

But why this is happening now is a mystery.