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American Spirit II - jDay 271; Boobie on Poop Deck, Auto Pilot Shuts Itself Off Again & a Great Dinner; Friday, October 3, 2014



Up at 6:00 AM to relieve Jeremy. Had Jeremy take one reef out of main, so no reefs in sail. Getting him 'qualified' to handle putting a reef in or out by himself, so he won't have to wake Joel at 4:00 AM if we need to reef.

At 7:30 AM the wind is 15/16 knots, our speed thru the water 4.7 knots and over the land 5.2 knots. The wind is dead astern. Bummer. Squalls still surround us but they look less intense and not threatening at the moment, unlike the last two days. I get a retrieve. But still very overcast and cloudy. Warm, though. Probably because raining less. Our heading is 244 degrees to Mauritius, a little south of the rumb line. That's OK. Long way to go. I'm wearing my foul weather pants and a long sleeved shirt.

The big boobie that landed on the 'poop deck' last night is still there. I can see from below that its pooped in 3 different places on the canvas. I look thru a clear plastic window in the dodger and can see him. It then sees me and we go 'eye to eye.' Once it gets a little lighter out the boobie decides it's time to leave and go catch some fish. At 8:33 AM its gone. I actually like giving birds a lift when they're tired. Its worth a little poop to clean up helping out a bird 500 or 1,000 miles from land.

We turn on the generator at 9:00 AM. Breakfast is at 9:25 AM before the morning net. Scrambled eggs, twice cooked potato with olive oil and spices to liven it up, chilled apple slices and bread with butter, peanut butter and jelly.

The 10:00 AM net is hosted by Tim from Ghost. All but 2 boats in the group check in (Andromeda and Avocet). After the net Jon from Polaris and I play Battleship, and I score 2 more hits with no hits on our ships. Yes!

We turn the generator off at 11:06 AM.

At 11:36 AM the wind is 15/18, our speed thru the water is 5.2 knots and over the land is 5.7 knots.

Our noon position is 15 degrees, 27 minutes South; 88 degrees, 16 minutes East; and 1,769 miles to Mauritius. We travel 141 miles noon to noon; an average speed of 5.9 knots. At this rate we'll be in Mauritius in 16 days from our start. This is the second longest leg in our circumnavigation at 2,350 nautical miles (2,702.5 statue miles). Our longest leg was last February from the Galapagos Islands to Hiva Oa in French Polynesia, at 2,980 nautical miles (3,427 statue miles).

At 12:58 PM our auto pilot shuts off. First time in 10 or 11 sailing days. We thought we'd fixed that problem. Apparently not. It can be dangerous losing steerage in rough seas going down wind wing on wing. When the auto pilot shut itself off we were surfing down a wave in 18 knots of breeze. A lot of lateral pressure on the boat. Joel caught the wheel before we rounded up. Good catch Joel!

Joel and I napped from 1:30 PM to 3:20 PM or so, while Jeremy manned the cockpit.

At 3:25 PM a big slapper wave hits the windward or port side of the boat. I am soaked. Luckily my Kindle and log book are in a plastic bag, so they don't get wet. The wind is 17 knots and our speed is 5.1 thru the water and 5.9 over the land. Its wavy; we're surfing a lot; and its very, very noisy. Our heading is 253 degrees.

Dinner at 5:30 PM is something new. We have two cans of 'Beef in Red Wine Casserole' from Australia. Like beef stew on steroids! I wonder with the 'red wine' in the ingredients if you have to be 21 to buy and eat this meal. We also have corn on the cob and chilled fruit cocktail for dessert. Boiling the water in the confused seas of the Indian Ocean is a real challenge. The Beef in Red Wine Casserole is stupendous. Two thumbs up. The crew is very happy with the provisioner. Guess who that is?

The sun sets around 7:00 PM Cocos Keeling time. Even though we've passed our first time zone, we don't change our watches and clocks until we get to our next destination. By the time we get to Mauritius we will have gone thru 2 1/2 more time zones. We'll change our watches at the dock when we get there. One reason we do this is with boats in the fleet being spread out over hundreds of miles, if everyone was on their own time zone it's be hard to have our morning and evening nets. Too confusing.

I nap from 7:23 PM to my watch time of 9:00 PM. During the 9:00 PM to midnight watch the winds are 15/20 and we're averaging 6.1 knots over the land. Still cloudy but I can see a few stars. The waves are visible due to the 2/3 rd moon out. I'm wearing foul weather pants and a long sleeved shirt. No rain tonight, though. We're still wing on wing on port tack (the boom is on the right). One reef in the jib and 1/2 reef in the mainsail.

The hydro generator is making a humming noise louder than usual. Joel and I can't figure out why...yet. Still working fine, though.

Joel relieves me at midnight, and I'm on the SSB radio sending out a log and emails and receiving emails from 12:13 AM to 12:27 AM. The 'send' is slow at 200 bytes per minutes. The 'receive' is fast at 1400, 2800 and 3200 bytes per minute. I have to go to 2 different frequencies in Brunei, Philippines 2,039 miles away at at heading of 55 degrees True, to get the job done. The first frequency I try disconnects me after 10 minutes.

After this a quick shower and then bed at 1:00 AM. My next watch at 6:00 AM comes soon.

Brian Fox



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