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Arkouda - Sea Day 13 (15 from start of Rally)



Arkouda
13 31.7 N, 36 12.5 W Dec 9, 2013, 02:25 Z

We had another fantastic day, although it was a little slow. Our days of sailing with 12 kts of wind dropped to 7 and 8 kts. We must be learning how to trim the sails--we able to ghost along at 4-5 kts, the Parasailor steady ahead. As the wind dropped to 4 knots even "Big Red" gave up and wadded itself into a pathetic little heap. We had not realized how hot is was until we went forward to bring it in and put it in its bag. We started the port motor at about 4:00 o'clock, had a fantastic chicken lentil curry, and watched the sun set. We are still chugging along at about 5 kts, have plenty of fuel thanks to the stop in the Verdes, and plenty of food thanks to Paalo in Sicily who repaired our Fridge and Freezer.

Sean has been reading all the manuals on the boat. Usually the manual comes out after a desperate search when something has broken, often I resort to downloading the PDF file because it is so hard to locate the right one when you need it. I managed to get all major systems neatly downloaded into ibooks on my Ipad when we had internet sailing through the Med. We spent some time in Lanzarote resorting all these manuals. The previous owner saved EVERYTHING, and because we are a catamaran and lot of systems are duplicated, we always had at least two copies. Since there are 3 water pumps on board there were three copies of the manuals. some dear friends loaned him a copy of "Watership Down" to read before we left. As he was delving into the workings of the autopilot he glanced up, and mentioned that he should probably start it now. He has always been good at reading technical manuals and textbooks, but not so much at reading for pleasure. I hope he enjoys it.

I spend a lot of time reading on my off watch hours, but even more time watching the waves and sea, staring at the amazing cloud formations and daydreaming. I sometimes can't help but to visualize the monsters of the deep as the schools of flying fish take flight trying to evade some predator (maybe us--Fred the bird ate really well until he was scared off when we gybed). Sometimes there are real dreams also, I am awfully good at naps!

There is no sense of urgency that Christmas is almost upon us, (the only slight worry is that we will miss our flight) no commercials to create that sense of urgency. No worries of trying to create that perfect "maxwell house" Christmas, or find that perfect gift. The only scent out here besides the salt and sea is that of my basil and rosemary. Maybe I should have gotten a little pine tree instead. I am apologizing to my friends and family now. The only gift this year may be that we make it home.

Love Cynthia

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