Answer: 1.5! So, get ready, this is a good one. Let me first lay the scene. Weather conditions: it's very overcast almost fully blocking out the moon; we had just gone through a small squall; and the wind is extremely light and directly on our nose which means the Yanmar humming it's lovely tune. Crew mental conditions: it's post dinner and all four crew members have settled deeply into their food comas; laying in the breeze up on deck; and bobbing our head to some really mellow tunes (no, not kenny G, more like Eric Clapton genre) which have to loud enough to drown out the engine. As a quick aside, we still have not caught any fish and dinner was the spiral cut ham and canned green beans I had foreshadowed in our last blog. But as I also mentioned, our "Cooke" prepared it in outstanding style.
And to be perfectly honest, after your fourth night at sea, General Tso's "chicken" with a mystery meat would have had me oo'ing and ah'ing...cat, horse, panda...I'd probably even lick my fingers after a tasty border collie or standard poodle (although, I head poodles can be a little stringy). Sorry, back to the story. To be fair to all the crew members, two of "us" were actually sleeping and our official night shifts had not yet started so we can not pin the tail directly to one donkey. And, yes, the Captain was one of the ones asleep...he's usually pulling zzz's within five minutes of every meal (poor Susie). Unfortunately, I cannot hide behind the veil of sleep which is why I can tell this story with such Watson-like accuracy (I'm not quite a Sherlock yet). Lying in the somewhat balmy breeze of the previous squall and facing backwards (weird, but yes, half of the time the crew faces backwards) I began to wonder as if I was starting to hallucinate. Was this cabin fever, was this the onset of food poisoning, was the dessert brownie "special", and why am I humming hokie pokie song: "blah blah blah and turn yourself around," but the waves seem to be passing ever so quickly from left to right behind the stern. I was broken from my trance as the "Cooke" jumped to the helm in the same mental quandary as myself.
Indeed, we had begun to do donuts in the middle of the ocean after our auto pilot decided to go on a short cigarette break. The "Cooke" took control of the helm and aimed us back North (oops, wrong direction), then South, and after a lot of laughs and a few pics of our joyride on the chart plotter we were back on our way. We debated pretending the incident never happened (the Captain never woke during the ordeal) but ultimately decided the Captain could use a good laugh, and since he doesn't get "towel origami" animals like the rest of us, we thought it only fair. That's it, back to monotone motoring, have a great day!
Dog quote of the day #6: "A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, 'If I died would you get another dog?'"