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American Spirit II - Day 65; Flying Fish , Birds , First Green Flash & Over 1/3 Way There; Sunday, March 9, 2014



At 1:00 AM we passed the 1,000 nautical mile mark on this leg. With the entire leg being 2,980 miles, we're over 1/3 of the way from the Galapagos to the Marquesas Islands.

At 7:15 AM mostly clear blue skies. Wind 15-9 knots. Speed over ground 6.5 knots. Waves 6 feet. 12 flying fish on deck, from 3 inches to 7 in length. In reading the book Kon Tiki, the 6 persons on board the raft would collect the flying fish every morning and cook them for breakfast. I'll give that a try next time I get a big one on board. Apparently, you don't filet them, just cook the whole fish. We'll see. I may have to solicit advice from a landside expert before proceeding. (Diane, send me your flying fish recipe!).

Speaking of Kon Tiki, for those of you reading this log who don't know what 'Kon Tiki' was, it was a balsa raft based on 500 AD technology that sailed from Peru to French Polynesia in 1947 with 5 Norwegian's and 1 Swede on board. They actually sailed on latitude 7 degrees south, while we're currently at 6 degrees, 45 minutes south latitude; or only 15 miles from their track. There is a movie and documentary about the voyage. It's a good watch on Netflix.

By 8:30 AM the Tropical Trough clouds had returned, again. Back in Florida clouds like these would signify the beginning of perhaps bad weather. Not along the equator. And our boat's barometer supports this. No change in the barometer.

We continue to see birds hunting for fish, even though they're 1,000 miles from land. They can do this because when they get tired, they just land on the ocean and rest or sleep.

By mid morning (10:45 AM) wind building to 20-22 knots. Back home, 20 knots means SCA - Small Craft Advisory. Not in the trade wind belts. Winds frequently are over 20 knots. Get used to it. We're averaging 7.5 knots boat speed. As a result of increased wind, we reefed the jib.

Noon position 6 degrees, 14 minutes South; 107 degrees, 8 minutes West. 1,905 miles to Hiva Hoa. We've gone 1,075.

After lunch Joel had another fish on the silver spoon; however, because we couldn't slow the boat, this one was lost. We found out later in looking at the lure that it was missing a barb. That probably contributed to the fish getting away. New spoon put on the line. The old one was 'deep sixed.'

I started marinating the blue fin tuna that we're having for dinner at 3:30 PM, to let the spices sink in. Dinner tonight consisted of (you guessed it) blue fin tuna cooked on the grill by chef Joel; along with corn and chilled peaches.

For the first time since leaving Florida January 4, we saw a green flash! Actually, two of them. The first was a millisecond; the second was a second long. Joel and I both saw both of them. Mike missed both of them. Sorry Mike. The green flash is a turquoise explosion that occurs when the upper limb of the setting sun touches and goes below the horizon. Its created by the atmosphere bending the light rays. How can you see 2 green flashes the same sun set? Simple. The boat was rising after we saw the first flash. So in rising up on a wave, we got to see the sun set again. A twofer. First time I've ever seen 2 green flashes on the same sunset.

After dinner the wind increased again, to a steady 18/19 knots. Speed 8.0 knots. We're flying.

Having a satellite phone on board allows us to call persons landside. So even though we're out of touch, we're really not. This allows us to call during persons birthdays, anniversary's, etc.

We passed 105 degrees West longitude today, which means we entered another time zone. So while people in Florida are adjusting their clocks to 'spring back,' we're turning ours back an hour to accommodate the new time zone. For those who don't know, every 15 degrees of longitude is a new time zone. If you divide 360 degrees (the earth's circumference) by 15 degrees, you get 24 (as in 24 hours in a day). When we get to 120 degrees West longitude, then 135 degrees, we'll adjust our clocks again. However, since boats in this Rally will be in different time zones during this leg, we're all using Galapagos time for our net communications and 'race' time. When we finish the leg and call in our finish time, we'll use the time 3 time zones back. Galapagos time. Go figure.

Brian Fox

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