Good morning, have you flipped your eggs today? Supposedly flipping them daily preserves them longer as it prevents the yolk from settling into the side and spoiling. That’s a major part of the sunrise rituals, along with looking around to find what’s fallen or broken in the dark. Yesterday it was the empty oil cans detaching from the rail and trying to escape. Today, just one wire shelf and a mystery machine screw on the deck. Where did it come from? Where does it go?
And, of course, there’s the toilet seat, whose plastic screws don’t seem to be sufficient to the task of holding it down. Honestly, did Raritan even do shock and vibration testing on this “marine” toilet? Not as much their fault, the flush is also acting temperamental in these waves: when the input through-hull breaches, the incoming air bubble can stop the pump up, and Andrew has to move the litter box and manually prime it. At least the outgoing side is working fine.
Andrew, Jazz, and PredictWind all have different opinions about which wrong direction we should point the boat to get to the right direction. Captain hates all the directions. We continue to beat upwind hard enough that tea cups can’t be left unattended. They don’t fall over, but they do the “T-Rex is coming” quiver hard enough to shoot liquid everywhere. Cushions are inside because there’s too much salt spray to leave them in the cockpit. Cabinet doors all need to stay latched shut.
At least we’re sailing again, even if it’s not as southerly as we like; with the reserve vegetable-can diesel jugs empty, we’ve got about 90 hours of motoring time left, and we’ll need some of that for power along the way. Greedy fridge and Autopilot. In another first, one of our visiting birds left a present smeared across the mainsail. The deck is generally wet enough to be immune, thankfully.
Happy moment of the day, as these aren’t swimming conditions: clean sheets!
3345 miles to go.
(Those miles are along our planned route, which isn’t exactly where we’re going or where we’ve been… So often we’ve actually traveled further than the decrease from the last number. Also these early days are the slow bit, and we should pick up speed after the Galapagos, or so we keep telling each other.)
So you are headed to the Marquesas?
I keep reading but am terrible at responding! Know that I am keeping and eye on you every day and sending wishes for safe passage!! 😘 ⛵️
Andrew & Jazz. Your Pacific Ocean crossing is even more daunting than the Caribbean adventures. I am awestruck by the mileage, 3,345 miles to go. The loose unknown machine screw on the deck. 90 hrs. of motoring time left, reduced a bit by frig and autopilot energy demands. You are amazing! What an expedition. My most frightening times in my 17 ft. runabout were in Narraganset Bay and Buzzards Bay with winds and waves that came up big after about 10:30 a.m.