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American Spirit II - Day 246; Final Race to Finish Line in Bali; Monday, September 8, 2014



Up at 6:17 AM. The moon was still up, just above the port bow horizon; setting into the mist or fog.



Jibed the mainsail from port to starboard side. Was doing 4.3 knots, now 5.7, with the wind 10 knots dead astern.



David got up at 6:35 AM and Jeanine went to bed. I put two fishing lines in the water at 7:15 AM; one hand line and one line on a reel.



The sunrise at 7:39 AM occurred 3 minutes before I'd anticipated, so I missed any chance for a green flash sunrise...again. However, another blood red sunrise. Quite spectacular, even with a smattering of light clouds on the horizon.



A fish 'hit' the pole and some line ran out for a couple of seconds, then the fish thru the lure.



The communications net was at 9:00 AM; hosted by Tim by Ghost.



Breakfast at 9:20 AM consisted of scrambled eggs; cut up potato; chilled pear halves; and raisin bread.



At 11:22 AM the wind was 10 knots and our speed 4.6.



Our noon position was 9 degrees, 22 minutes South; and 117 degrees, 0 minutes East. We were 562 miles south of the equator (9 x 60 + 22 - 562). Sixty miles to a degree; and 22 minutes is a fraction of a degree (22 out of 60). We were wing on wing at this time, jib port and mainsail to starboard.



At 2:08 PM the wind speed was 13-17 knots and our boat speed 7.4-7.7. We were going faster than necessary because we can only enter Bali Harbor in daylight so getting there at night doesn't do us any good as we'll just have to wait until sunrise. We'll have to drop the pole later to slow the boat down and to lessen the rock and roll for dinner.



Joel napped from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM.



A fishing boat passed us starboard to starboard at 1/2 mile at 4:00 PM.



At 4:35 PM we rolled up the jib and put the whisker pole away to slow the boat. That slowed us to 5.5 knots with a Bali ETA of 8:30 AM Tuesday.



Dinner at 5:20 PM consisted of blackened rib-eye steak cooked on the grill by chef Joel; sweet potato cooked in the microwave oven (for 15 minutes); and butter beans.



During the 6:00 PM net about 8 boats checked in.



At 6:16 PM we had 3 fishing boats port bow 45 degrees.



The sun set at 7:45 PM - no green flash.



At 9:00 PM three fishing boats to port, and islands to our starboard with mountains sticking up. The mountains were only visible because of the full moon. We had 5 ships around us as we went thru a shipping channel for Bali's chief port at 11:00 PM.



Brian Fox


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