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American Spirit II - Day 268; Better Weather and a Good Day Sailing; Tuesday, September 30, 2014



Up at 5:45 AM. A nice sunrise in the offing. Relieved Jeremy at 6:00 AM.

At 6:30 AM the wind is 15/17, our speed thru the water is 4.6 and over the ground 5.2 knots. Cloudy, with a little blue sky. On port tack, mainsail only. The wind increases to 20 at the top end a little later.

Joel up at 9:05 AM. We turn the generator on at 9:10 AM.

Bradley on Alpheratz hosts the 10:00 AM net. Good turnout of boats reporting.

Breakfast after the net at 10:30 AM: bacon, scrambled eggs, chilled pear halves and bread.

We go to wing on wing at 11:35 AM. The wind is 11/12, and we're making 5.7 knots thru the water and 6.2 over the land. A slight helping current.

We're trying to find the propane leak. Think its a hose not a tank. No luck. Joel uses soapy water, drips it on the hose and valve, to see where its bubbling. Jeremy has a good ear and nose and can hear the leak and smell it. Joel in a moment of brilliance then thinks, correctly, that when we had the tank filled last the company that filled it, not being an American company, may have left the OPD Valve open. That's an overflow valve. He adjusts this valve, and voila!, leak stopped. There's a reason Joel is called the Fixer.

Our noon position is 12 degrees, 45 minutes South; and 94 degrees, 52 minutes East.

I napped from 12:15 PM to 2:15 PM; then Joel napped starting at 2:15 PM until about 4:40 PM.

At 2:37 PM we pass a sailboat with two headsails flying. We think its Civetta II. That was the boat that had the lights we saw last night. No AIS showing, and we passed within a mile.

The sea is deep, deep blue; and its now sunny. We're heading 249 degrees to Mauritius.

At 4:40 PM the wind is 11/12, our speed thru the water is 4.9 knots and over the land 5.8 knots. A .9 knot helping current.

Dinner at 5:30 PM is freeze dried, of course: White Bean with Chicken Chill; mixed vegetables; chilled sliced peaches; and bread.

The sunset at around 6:00 PM is cloudy, so no green flash.

Bradley from Alpheratz hosts the 7:00 PM net. At the end of the net Charlie from Celebrate reads Lucy's story over the SSB; a story that uses all or most of the boat names in the fleet. It ends with 'the end.' Nicely done Lucy from Folie a Deux!

After that we play 'Battleship' with Polaris. Jon to be specific. Jon gave me a play board before we left Cocos Keeling, and every night and morning after the net we're each making 3 plays. Tonight I got 1 hit against one of his ships. Jon has yet to get a hit on me.

From 7:30 PM to 8:50 PM I nap before my 9:00 PM to midnight watch. During my watch a lot of stars are out. I take out the canvas connector between the dodger and bimini so I can see the stars better. A 2/3 rd moon is in front of us, lighting up our twin sails and the water in front of the boat. Its a good night to be sailing.

At 10:30 PM the wind is 16/17, our speed thru the water is 5.2 and over the land is 6.0 knots. We're dead down wind. Not a pleasant wind position. We're sailing south of our rumb line to keep the sails full and to not jibe the mainsail.

The moon sets behind a bank of clouds at 10:55 PM and its like someone turned the lights out. Pitch black. Wow!

Joel relieves me at 12:10 AM, and I go right to the SSB to send out a couple of logs. I connect with Brunei in the Philippines, 1,641 nautical miles away at a heading of 50 degrees True. The send and receive is really fast. I'm done at 12:14 AM; 4 minutes. Cool!

In bed at 12:25 AM.

Brian Fox


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