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American Spirit II - Day 255; A 177 Nautical Mile Day & a Late Arrival at Christmas Island; Wednesday, September 17, 2014



Up at 6:00 AM. The wind is 16/17 knots, our speed thru the water is 5.9 knots and speed over the ground is 8.8 knots. A helping current of 2.9 knots. Wow! Cloudy, lumpy seas. Our running lights (tri-light at the top of the mast) are off. Joel must have turned them off when he rolled over in bed. Made myself a cup of coffee thae spilled it all over the aft end of the cockpit table. Got the nylon bucket out and washed down the cockpit; then made another cup of coffee.

At 6:33 AM two frigate birds were 'fishing' off our bow, low to the water; our bow waves stirring up small fish for them to catch. Adela was 11 miles astern. They must have shortened sail during the night.

At 7:42 AM the wind was still the same - 16/18; and we were still moving over the land at 8.1 knots. The lumpy seas were caused by 2 wave sets. One driven by the trade winds pushing us along; and the other, longer swells from the Southern Ocean hitting our port beam square on. There was one reef in the jib and mainsail.

The 9:00 AM net was hosted by Charlie from Celebrate. Charlie had a 'bonus' assignment for his station listeners today: to make up a story using as many Rally boat names as you could.

Breakfast at 9:20 AM consisted of bacon, scrambled eggs, mandarin oranges and bread.

We put the tri-reacher pole up after breakfast on the starboard side. Low side pole. At 11:30 AM we shook the reef out of the main. The wind was 16 knots, our speed thru the water was 5.6 and over the ground 7.8.

Our noon position was 10 degrees, 2 minutes South; and 107 degrees, 21 minutes East. We had traveled 177 nautical miles from our noon position yesterday, averaging 7.4 knots. I think that's the most miles we've made in one day so far on this trip. Christmas Island is 189 miles away.

At 12:15 PM we put up the whisker pole, going wing on wing with the pole on the port side. Our speed is now 8.3 knots with a wind speed of 18/19 knots.

At 12:21 PM I sent an email to Rally Control advising them of our ETA to the finish line at Christmas Island, midnight; and requested rafting assignment. Because there are only 5 mooring balls in Christmas Island for yachts, with 19 boats we have to raft up, I requested a raft-up to Nexus, a large catamaran and our 'rafting buddy' from the Panama Canal transit.

We put a reef in the mainsail at 1:25 PM as the wind was building and we were starting to round up into the waves and wind.

I napped from 1:30 PM to 3:40 PM; and Joel went down for a nap at 1:40 PM, with Jeremy at the helm.

Up at 3:40 PM I took a shower. Always a good feeling.

At 3:45 PM the wind had dropped a little to 15/17 knots, and we were doing 6.4 knots thru the water and 7.8 knots over the land. Adela was 9.4 miles behind us, starting to catch up.

Jeremy napped from 4:11 PM to 5:15 PM.

We dropped the whisker pole at 5:10 PM as the wind had suddenly gone forward and we didn't want to backwind the sail and break our whisker pole again. The wind had gone to the beam so we didn't even need to put a low side pole up to fill the jib.

Dinner at 5:40 PM was challenging for the cook as it was a little rough below. We had freeze dried Sweet & Sour Port with Rice; corn kernels; and chilled pears halves. For dinner we turned the boat 10 degrees to starboard to give us a more stable eating platform in the cockpit. The rocking and rolling was still a little ugly.

Charlie from Celebrate hosted the 6:00 PM net, during which we found out that some boats were going to skip Christmas Island: Celebrate, Folie a Deux and Shaya Moya, the newest boat to join the fleet in MacKay. Why anyone would want to skip Christmas Island is beyond me. Oh well. Every one sails their own boat....

Another cloudy sunset, so no green flash. Christmas Island is only 33 miles away now.

At 8:12 PM we could see the lume of Christmas Island over the horizon, 22 miles away.

At 10:00 PM the Australian custom's boat Trident hailed us and requested a bunch of information, such as vessel name, registration port and number, etc. A mile from the finish line I called Rally Control to advise them that we were a mile off.

At 10:45 PM as I was sitting on the port side of the cockpit something flew by my head, hit my left foot which was outstretched on the cockpit table top and then landed on the starboard side of the cockpit floor. Jeremy heard something land on the floor and went to pick it up in the dark. One he realized it was a slimy object he yelled and let it go. I put my flash light on it and determined it was a 6 inch flying fish. I grabbed it and threw it overboard. A close call.

We crossed the finish line at 10:54 PM and called Rally Control again to give them this time. Suzana responded that she had received our time. We then rolled up the jib and mainsail at once and turned the engine on. By 11:20 PM we were rafted up alongside the port side of Nexus, our starboard side. Laurie and Jeanine from Nexus and Tim and Claire and Jan from Ghost helped us tie up in the bumpy conditions. Nexus was on a mooring ball and we were only 50 yards or so from a reef and behind the reef a cliff wall going straight up a few hundred feet. Wow.

I then changed my I Phone and wrist watch to an hour earlier, but left the ship's bulkhead clock the same 'local start time' of the leg, as the net communications and start and finish times will all be computed using the start time in Bali.

Jeanine and Laurie came over for a short visit after we tied up to them. Russ was already in bed.

We went to bed at 12:35 AM.

Brian Fox

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