Agua Dulce - Log Day 4 – An Unwelcome Visitor and a Welcome Catch

I started off my day when I came up on watch at 7am to relieve Charles. After the usual report about what the wind was doing (or not doing, in our case), what tack we were on, where the boats were, etc., he showed me his hand that had several cuts and gouges in it. He said that when he came up for his 5am watch, there was a large petrel (big seabird!) on the floor of the cockpit. It was just sitting there, but seemed agitated when Charles got near. He – the petrel, not Charles – somehow managed to squeeze his large body through the small porthole in the cockpit that leads to the galley below. Charles went below where the petrel was now sitting on the floor of the galley. Maybe he smelled last night’s lasagne. Charles covered him with a dish towel and picked him up to put him back outside, but at the same time, Mr. Petrel grabbed onto Charles’ hand to let him know that he wasn’t interested in Charles’ help. He latched on and didn’t let go until Charles got back into the cockpit and tried to heave him overboard, at which time he flew away, the only casualty being Charles’ left hand. So, that’s the second time on this trip Agua Dulce has been visited by a feathered friend. Maybe a turkey will show up tomorrow for Thanksgiving!

In other news, we’re motoring again. The wind has dropped to about 3 knots and the forecast isn’t good. We’ve got a large area of light to no air we still need to get around before we should be well into the trade winds. The question is do we worry more about conserving fuel (it’s only the 4th day of the passage) or try to push through the light air quickly so we can get to the trades?

More excitement came at about 4pm when we landed our first (now I’m thinking there will be more to come!) fish of the trip – a mahi mahi! It was the perfect size for four of us for dinner, and it was absolutely delicious.

It’s a good thing we ate all the mahi and didn’t need to freeze it, because we also had an issue with our refrigerator/freezer this evening. When I was putting some things away, I saw the yogurts floating in the bottom of the fridge which was 3 inches deep in salt water. Somehow, water came back through the thru-hull fitting and into the fridge and freezer. The bad news is that the sea water ruined a couple of our frozen meals and caused the temperature in the freezer to go up dramatically and all of our frozen meat thawed. So we’re cooking all the meat today and tomorrow and will refreeze it cooked to be used in our meals. It’s not the way I would have planned it, but at least the only casualties were 2 casseroles and none of the meat was ruined.

In the meantime, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. We’re really missing our families on this holiday, but we are looking forward to being with everyone at Christmas – less than a month from now. Now, come on wind – we’re going to need a little help getting home!