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American Spirit II - Day 283; Crisis in the Indian Ocean - Day 11 of 12; & Green Flash No. 21 ; Wednesday, October 15, 2014



Eleven days down with our mast still up and only 1 more day to go until we get to Mauritius and safety.

Up at 6:00 AM. I relieved Jeremy whose been on watch from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM. We're 2 miles ahead of Merlyn, so I slow the boat down for them to catch up.

The sun rises at 7:57 AM Cocos Keeling start time (local time is 2 1/2 hours earlier). Clouds obstruct the horizon, so no green flash. But its a beautiful sunrise with a big green hue around the clouds adjacent to the rising sun.

Joel from American Spirit II hosts the 10:00 AM net. Besides Merlyn and us, only Civetta II is tuned in. The other boats have arrived at Mauritius already.

Breakfast consists of 9 pieces of bacon; 5 scrambled eggs; chilled peach slices; and breakfast crackers in lieu of bread as the bread is all gone.

I'm continuing to read 'The Covenant,' a book about the history of South Africa. I've just read a chapter on Shaka, the great Zulu chief. There is even a DVD series about him. After reading what this king does to even his own people, I'm never watching the DVD series. To say he was inhuman is an understatement. Why do leaders who start out great become such psychotic, murdering madmen? For example, one of his witch doctors says that evil spirits are emanating from cats owned by some of his villagers. So how to 'solve' this problem? Just round up the 630 females of the households (huts) that own cats, and cruelly kill them. The owners of the cats.

Our noon position is 19 degrees, 41 minutes; 60 degrees, 32 minutes; and we're 165 miles from Mauritius. We've traveled 129 miles since noon yesterday at an average speed of 5.4 knots.

We change the spinnaker halyard chafe points at 12:55 PM. The wind is 6/7 knots and we're moving at 4.6 knots thru the water and 6.0 knots over the land. Merlyn is .6 of a mile behind us off our port side.

Lunch at 1:43 PM consists of freeze dried Turkey Tetrazzini.

I nap from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Guess I was tired.

Dinner at 6:30 PM is minced meat burgers with pita bread as the bun; chick peas; white rice; and chilled peach halves.

After dinner we turn our engine off for a while as we've gotten more than 1 1/2 miles ahead of Merlyn.

I host the 7:00 PM net. Only Civetta II answers my calls. Not only is this an easy net, its a quick one, too!

The sun sets at 8:30 PM and we record green flash number 21 on our circumnavigation. It is Jeremy's first green flash, so he's no longer a 'green flash virgin.' Jeremy is so excited he can't stand it. Joel sees a double green flash; and I see a single. And what's most impressive is that the entire green flash sequence lasts about 6 seconds. Definitely an above average green flash. Unfortunately, no one on Merlyn of Poole sees the green flash. They'll have to try again tomorrow night.

I relieve Joel at 9:10 PM. I'm late because I'm typing a log.

At 11:45 PM the wind is 11/13 knots and we're moving at 5.1 knots thru the water and 5.1 over the land.

Joel relieves me at midnight and stands the 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM watch. I go to the navigation station and turn on the SSB radio to send out a log and emails. I connect with Brunei in the Philippines, 3,565 nautical miles away on a bearing of 72 degrees true. The send is fast at 1400 bytes per minutes; but the receive is slow at 600. After I'm done Joel sends out a GRIB weather request. After I shower I turn the SSB back on and download the GRIB weather file. Basically the weather forecast is winds from the northeast at 15 knots until tomorrow night, when they go lighter and more northerly. We should be in by then.

I'm in bed by 1:30 AM.

Brian Fox

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