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American Spirit II - Day 470; New Tracker Information, a Good Day Motoring and Sailing Along the North Cuban Coast, and We Get Boarded During the Night; Tuesday, April 21, 2015



New tracker information from Rally Control:

Now that the World ARC has finished, the rally reporting and mapping has also finished. Yourself, family and friends can follow the progress of American Spirit on your YB private page http://my.yb.tl/americanspirit

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One year ago today:

"Day 108; Last Day in Moorea, Made Bread and Bali Hai Pool; Monday, April 21, 2014. I worked on itinerary for David and Paul, arriving late April 26 from Chicago and Phoenix. Early afternoon I took Tracy Ramsey's bread recipe and made my first loaf of bread on boat. Missing a couple of items, like a mixing bowl and had to use butter in place of shortening. One of the problems in shopping in a foreign country is that sometimes its hard to find in the store what you want because the printing on all the packages and jars and cans is in, in the case of French Polynesia, French. Go figure. And having never bought shortening before, I didn't know what a typical package looked like. And once in a foreign country, you can't find a small dictionary of English and French or Spanish to use to figure out what the name of a food item is in that country. The bread must have been OK because Stephen and Joel ate it."

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Up at 6:00 AM and relieve Darlene, who stood the 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM watch. The wind is 5.9 knots and we're motor sailing at 5.9 knots thru the water and 8.3 knots over the land. That's a 2.4 knot helping current. Nice. We're traveling at 1,600 RPM's and have a full mainsail out. We're 23 miles north of the northern coast of Cuba, and 73 miles west of its easternmost point and the Windward Passage; and our COG (Course Over the Ground) is 302 degrees. Ship traffic is starting to increase to where we're in contact with more than one ship at a time.

The sunrise at 6:39 AM consists of a red orb, the lower half invisible behind a cloud. No green flash. As the sun rises more and more of the red orb becomes visible above the horizon hugging cloud bank, until I can see 80% of the sun. Then the upper red limb enters another cloud and disappears until I can only see a center band of the sun. At 6:43 AM the sun disappears entirely into a cloud bank. But at 6:45 AM the sun explodes above the cloud bank concealing it and rockets into the sky above it. It will be a 'blow torch' sort of day, very hot and sweaty. There is a green hue around the sun reflected onto the nearby clouds.

Fifteen miles to our west and just south of our course is a 'Traffic Separation Zone.' A highway, if you will, where ships going east and west have a single lane, a one way street so to speak, to travel in. Its laid out like a street with a divider down the middle of it. These TSZ's only exist in areas of the world with a lot of shipping and/or shipping choke points. As a non-commercial vessel we are not, by international sea law, allowed to travel in a traffic separation zone, unless it is to cross the zone; which we must do at a perpendicular angle. Inside this zone, even if we are sailing, we have no right-away over a merchant vessel under power.

At 7:01 AM the wind is 6 knots and we're motor sailing at 5.9 knots thru the water and 7.1 knots over the land.

At 8:58 AM the wind is 7 knots and we're motor sailing at 6 knots thru the water and 6.2 knots over the land.

Joel gets up at 8:55 AM; followed by Darlene.

Breakfast consists of bacon, 3 eggs, cut up potato, chilled pear halves and fruit cocktail, and cinnamon bread. Darlene has a piece of brown bread with mayonnaise and bacon.

At 10:42 AM I type one log and write some emails.

At 11:20 AM we pass thru the 75th meridian (of longitude). Its the last 'time zone' longitude we'll pass thru on our circumnavigation. As Joel would say, 'Hoo Hoo!'

Our noon position is 21 degrees, 22 minutes North; 75 degrees, 40 minutes West; and we're 380 miles from Key West. Since noon yesterday we've traveled 162 miles at an average speed of 6.75 knots.

At 12:48 PM we use the satellite phone to send out and receive a log, emails and a GRIB file. The first connection isn't good, so we have to try a second time. Nothing is ever easy on a boat in the middle of an ocean.

At 2:05 PM we see on AIS and then visually a 53 foot sailboat named 'Persevere.' Its on our starboard bow. The wind is 7 knots and we're motor sailing at 6.3 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land.

I take a nap from 2:10 PM to 3:30 PM.

At 2:30 PM Darlene and Joel see 3 large manta rays on the surface, port side.

Joel goes down for a nap at 3:50 PM. At this time there are 8 AIS contacts on our chart plotter. Besides the Persevere 53 foot sailboat, we have the Dinkeldiep, a 348 foot cargo ship; the Foresight, a 456 foot cargo ship; the Norwegian Star, a 968 foot cruise ship; the Ocean, a 515 foot cargo ship; and the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas, a 1112 foot passenger ship. Plus 2 other vessels unidentified on our AIS.

At 4:29 PM we turn the engine off and are sailing again. The wind is 10/11 knots and we're sailing at 6.5 knots thru the water and 6.6 knots over the land.

At 4:59 PM the wind is 13 knots and we're sailing at 7.3 knots thru the water and 7.6 knots over the land.

At 5:25 PM Joel puts a half reef in the mainsail to help level the boat as I cook dinner down below. Later, during dinner, he puts in another half reef because eating dinner in the cockpit standing on your head is not fun.

Dinner at 5:45 PM is freeze dried Lasagne with Meat Sauce; left over 5 bean mix; herbal instant mashed potatoes; and chopped spinach (for Joel).

At 6:59 PM the wind is 15 knots and we're sailing at 6.5 knots thru the water and 6.7 knots over the land.

At 8:54 PM I relieve Joel. Lightning is to our port over Cuba. We can't see lightning bolts, just white flashes like a flash bulb going off.

At 8:56 PM the wind is 13 knots and we're sailing at 6.3 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land. We're sailing with a full main and jib out. A sliver of a moon, about 1/6th, is on the bow to the left of a very bright Venus. We're coming up on another Traffic Separation Zone to port. The 53 foot sailboat Persevere is on our port bow 3.6 miles away; and one ship is entering the TSZ and one is leaving. I see on our AIS 5 ships total.

At 9:50 PM a thin layer of clouds fills in and most of the stars disappear.

At 10:03 PM the wind is...I don't know, I forgot to write it down; we're sailing and our speed thru the water is 5.1 knots and over the land 5.3 knots. A 679 foot cargo ship called the Just Trader, heading to Freeport in the Bahamas, is 9.5 miles behind us on our port side and is coming on at 17 knots. It's close enough that I can faintly see its range lights.

At 10:20 PM I turn on the engine to 1,600 RPM's. The wind was down to 11 knots, but it was backing and we were starting to slow up a lot with the wind behind us. Our speed had dropped to 3.9 knots thru the water and 4.7 knots over the land. With the engine on we're making 7.1 knots over the land.

At 10:55 PM the cargo ship Just Trader passes along our port side, 2.2 miles abeam. It cuts between us and the Persevere sailboat on our port bow.

At 10:37 PM I talk to Janet at home on the satellite phone and she confirms that the new tracking address for the boat is working and people can track our progress, real time, again. I'll send that information out via a special log tomorrow.

At 11:00 PM the wind is 11 knots and we're motor sailing at 6.5 knots thru the water and 7.5 knots over the land. The stars are also back.

At 11:12 PM I roll the jib up as its flogging. We have a full mainsail out.

At 11:42 PM the wind is 6 knots and we're motor sailing at 6.0 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land.

When Joel gets up to relieve me he spots an intruder in the boat, a 7 inch flying fish had crash landed in the main salon, just missing landing in his quarter berth there. That would have been a fish story for the ages if that had happened! Though on Follie a Deux, they DID have a flying fish enter thru a porthole and land in one of their children's beds. I took a couple of pictures of the poor dead fish, then Joel tossed it overboard. I wish I had thought quicker, as I would have told him to give it to me. I would have put it in a zip lock bag and then put it in the refrigerator; to be cooked for breakfast tomorrow. Darn. The mind is slower than a tossed fish. Who knew?

Brian Fox



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