Sojourner - Four Men and a Boat

A little late for introductions but you might wonder who would cross a big ocean in a small boat. We are: Bob, a sailboat whisperer with a lot of initiative, observant, and always thinking of what could make the present better. Bob is everybody's preferred cook. James, a Lake Michigan sailor, with a chess player's sense of consequential thinking, and the first guy we call upon for a repair needing a needle and thread. He also is the only one who knows where all the food is stored Must save James!. Paul, a very good problem solving diagnostician, tenacious in the face of a technical challenge , has a very helpful base knowledge of electronics and other systems and is very easy to share a cockpit with. Me, I put the boat and crew together and have been thinking of a trip like this for decades. Each of us has great home support including Cathy, my life partner (and boat co-owner) who is providing port-of-call land support. So far, the crew members have keep our sense of humor and goodwill toward each other. Looking good.

We are eight days in to this leg of the trip. Watch schedule is 7 hrs on, 7 off, 5 on, five off. We are teamed up: Paul and I are one team and Bob and James on the other. We have managed 13' swells topped by 3' waves and had to sail far of course to avoid worse conditions. Now the seas are fairly calm, the sun is out and we are looking for every 1/10 of a knot of boat speed we can get while we are headed pretty much to Horta. Less than 1000 miles to go and if we coud travel 130 miles per day that would be great. Have to manage water resources (water maker is not working) , limited fuel reserves and a dead line. Have to cross the finish line NLT noon of 5/31 least we get tagged as "did not finish". OSPREY, a comparably sized boat, is within stone throwing distance after all these weather conditions and miles. We not racing, just want to take pictures of them crossing the finish line from our stern.

So far we have seen two whales, many dolphins, and land and sea birds One land bird met us far out to sea, rested under the dodger for an hour or so and them flew down below to the vee berth to check things out.

Although the propane system and now the water maker have been troublesome, no metal, fiberglass or wood has been broken.

We have crossed the ocean thus far leaving a wake that soon disappears in to the sea state leaving no sign that we have been here. The lasting mark though will be within each of us.

More later,

Ken