We sailed southwest with the cutter rig for most of yesterday. It’s amazing how different it feels sailing at 50 degrees to the wind vs 70. But if you’re going to go upwind, these are the conditions for it: we had some 12-15 knots apparent, so we bounced, but not tooth-jarringly like last week.
At about 7pm the wind suddenly cut in half, which slowed us down for dinner. Then at 8:30 the wind died completely. As we stepped outside to furl the jib, we noticed glowing reflections in the headlamp light. And when we pointed the light at what turned out to be the same little squids we’ve been finding on deck, we saw a much bigger one dart by, two feet long or so. Our first time seeing one of those from above the water.
We’ve passed another time zone west, according to the chartplotter. Captain, not understanding time zones, went and waited for Andrew in bed at the old time. Creatures of habit, cats, with excellent internal clocks.
The night was beautiful, with a gorgeous crescent moonrise in a clear starry sky. And Jazz got to see it from all angles, as Villa spun in the dead air at the speed of a rotating restaurant. If only it could be like this during the day, so we could swim and get the sails out of the way of the solar panels. We’d gladly trade and get the pounding sailing at night; Andrew can sleep through anything.
The wind started to pick up again for Andrew’s morning shift, so now we’re sailing southwest with the spinnaker again, still chasing the equator. We got a distant pass from dolphins again, and somehow we’re still seeing little sea birds (and the marks off their passing) despite being hundreds of miles from land.
2425 miles left on the rhumb line.
Love to read your updates. Do I understand you are both polywogs, and do you have an appropriate ceremony planned for crossing the line? Hugs, Jon and Pat
Jazz was already a shellback, so she got to run the ceremony. We’ll post pictures in a couple of days… 🙂