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American Spirit II - Day 135; Welcome 'New' Readers, Sharks Circling the Boat, 2 Great Snorkels, Exploring Anchorage Island & Fidler Crabs Everywhere; Monday, May 19, 2014



While at a camp fire on Anchorage Island Sunday night a crew member of another boat told me that her mother (or was it a friend of hers?) was reading my logs. I asked her why, because I can't imagine why someone would want to read the logs from a boat that their daughter or friend was not on. The answer I received was that she did so because I wrote my logs every day, that most of the boats aren't writing logs, and that she found them interesting. So for all of you out there reading the logs of American Spirit II, people I don't know, I hope I can continue to inform and entertain you for the next 348 days. Writing logs can be very mundane, so I will try to throw in some subjects about what we're doing (and if we're doing something then all the boats are doing it),the problems we're encountering, maybe even a history of where we're at and for sure, humor. Those of you from Europe may find American humor is...different. Oh well. It is what it is.



Up at 9:00 AM. The latest I've slept in in a long time. As I got my first cup of coffee, in looking at the area behind the boat I noticed our sentinels (black tipped sharks) were already there. These 'boat patrollers' are typically only 2 to 3 feet long, but they are there in numbers up to a dozen every day. And the black tipped sharks are beautiful and graceful to watch.



I realized this morning that my soap dish was lost at sea. After conducting an in depth investigation, I determined that when Joel opened up the propane storage locker in the cockpit last night, he didn't see that my soap dish was on top of the storage compartment. When he opened it, overboard went my soap dish and soap. At least he DID see my shampoo and swim suit and moved them beforehand. Losing the only swim suit I had that fit would have been inconvenient. When I told Joel what he had done, he admitted to the dastly deed and said 'next time I'll use my flashlight.' I can always count on Joel to shed light on a problem. Pun intended. I'm sure everyone has had a similar experience in life, right?



Breakfast consisted of bacon, scrambled eggs and some fruit. Two of the eggs in the bilge egg storage area had gone bad so I tossed them to the sharks. In 3 seconds they were gone. Like tossing a bone to a German Shepard. Chomp!



A word about bacon. Or, 'the world according to Joel.' Joel has me cooking the eggs in bacon fat, because he says they taste so much better that way. If you've never tried that, please do. The eggs are 100% better when cooked in bacon fat. And you get the added benefit of not having to clear that yucky bacon grease out of the frying pan. A win-win situation.



At 11:30 AM we had 8-10 black tipped sharks circling the stern of the boat and dingy. Why? Because Joel was doing the dishes and the sinks drain into the water under the boat. Let's go swimming.



From 12 noon to 3:15 PM we went snorkeling. First we dingied to Anchorage Island, then walked along a path to the east and entered the water on the other side of the island. It's not easy entering the water to snorkel on some of these islands because most of the areas are not sandy shores but areas full of broken coral and shells. Walking from the shore into the water to put on your flippers is not easy on your feet. And putting your flippers on while on shore and then walking backwards into the water has its own risks. To get to the second snorkel we had to walk along the west side of Anchorage Island a few hundred yards to get to the are where we wanted to snorkel. During both of these snorkels, besides seeing many colorful and different types of fish, including ones we've never seen before, again, we saw multiple black tipped sharks, one white tipped shark and one 5-6 foot gray shark. My fish book describes the gray shark as 'occasionally aggressive and dangerous.' This guy had broad shoulders and looked at us like we could be invited for dinner. Our own. My fish book said this species grows to 7 3/4 feet.



We also explored the ranger buildings (they aren't on the island until June), which consisted of a two story building with sleeping accommodations on the 2nd,locked floor. An area where boats from around the world had put up their flags with their boat and crew names on them. Much like the flags covering the top of Mount Everest. One structure held a book exchange area, where you drop off a book and take one. And there were posters on walls showing fish and whale species; and rules for Suwarrow Island. Rule infractions could result in fines of $100 to $500. What's interesting about the fines in that they're listed in American dollars. Not New Zealand dollars or Euros. I wonder why?



On the beach is a street sign with the names of cities listed on it and the distances to those cities from Suwarrow. For example, from top to bottom: London 9,500 NM; Sydney 2,800 NM; Panama 5,200 NM; Hawaii 2,000 NM; Auckland (New Zealand) 1,850 NM; and New York 6,000 NM. NM=Nautical Miles.



We also brought our spinnaker to the beach to stretch out between 2 palm trees so we could undo a figure 8 wrap.



Back at the boat at 3:15 PM, Joel napped while I listened to music on my I Phone, with a portable speaker in the cockpit, and read. I finished another Jack Reacher novel. Happy ending. All the bad guys died. Blown up this time.



At 5:30 PM we went to Anchorage Island for Happy Hour and to watch the sun set, hoping for a green flash. There wasn't one. Clouds, again. But we met two crew from boats we hadn't met before. Alex from Free and Breezy who resides in the Canary Islands; and Tau from the boat Lluiton. He resides in Barcelona, Spain. While waiting for the sun to set, there were numerous instances of a shark fin rising above the surface of the shallow water near where we were sitting. Black tipped sharks looking for food.



And the sand on the beach area is covered 100% with the footprints of Fiddler Crabs. Some so small you can barely see them, and the largest about 3 inches in diameter. Joel says a Fiddler Crab is the land equivalent of a water borne Hermit Crab. They both steal shells.



A rain shower hit the boat at 6:30 PM, so we had to hurry back to the boat because we had been stupid and left the hatches open. Fortunately, no damage was done.



Dinner tonight consisted of hamburgers cooked on the grill by Joel and French fries cooked in a skillet in the galley by me. We had French fruit cocktail for dessert. Not very good. The fruit cocktail from the USA is much better.



At 10:00 PM we watched the pilot episode of Homeland, which we had borrowed from BriZo, a UK boat. Thank you Stuart and Pat.



Lights out at 11:00 PM for Joel, 12 AM for me.



348 Days until home.



Brian Fox


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