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American Spirit II - Day 472; Back in the USA!; Thursday, April 23, 2015



New tracker information from Rally Control:

Now that the World ARC has finished, the rally reporting and mapping has also finished. Yourself, family and friends can follow the progress of American Spirit on your YB private page http://my.yb.tl/americanspirit

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One year ago today:

"Day 110; Agent Visits, Electricity at Dock Problem, Follie a Deux Visits for Dinner, and First East German Contact; Wednesday, April 23, 2014. Up at 7:50 AM when our agent, Laurent, arrived at boat. We gave him the stainless steel anchor roller, which needed a weld and a backing plate made for it. He said he'd have it back to us in a day or two. Joel then went to the nearby Mobil station and dropped off our propane tank to get filled with propane. We had to switch to our alternate propane tank, which was filled with butane instead of propane, because that's all we could fill it with in Nuku Hiva. You can fill a propane tank with butane because butane has a lower psi. But you can not fill a butane tank with propane, as its not safe to do so. Butane burns less intensely than propane, so it may take longer to boil water for coffee and cook food in the future."

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On the 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM watch Darlene saw 3 shooting stars. That may be a boat record. Way to go Darlene!

Up at 5:49 AM to relieve Darlene. The wind is 7 knots and we're motoring at 7.1 knots thru the water and 6.2 knots over the land.

At 6:22 AM what our electronic chart plotter calls a 'Dangerous Shoal' is 3.3 miles to our right or starboard. It's surrounded by islands including the Cal Sal Cay; Anguilla Cays; Damos Cays; Dog Rocks; Muerto Cays; Deadman Cays; Headed Shot Cays; Lavenderas Rocks and Water Cays. They're all called the 'Cal Sal Bank,' and it measures 56 x 40 miles in area. It probably doesn't take much imagination to figure out how 'Deadman Cays' and 'Headed Shot Cays' got their names.

At 6:27 AM we're in the Nicholas Channel to the left of the Cal Sal Bank, heading to our last Cuban waypoint. Once there I'll turn the boat 7-10 degrees right and head straight to Key West about 90 miles away. Once in the Gulf Stream we'll turn the boat perpendicular to the strongest part of the stream so we can get thru the current quicker. We should make landfall in the Florida Keys between Key West and Marathon.

Our last sunrise not in USA waters is coming up with the sky behind us, left of the transom, starting to glow red. Once we get to Florida we probably won't see another sunrise rising out of the ocean since we'll be on the west coast of Florida. An island to my right, Cal Sal, is visible. With my binoculars I can see palm trees and mangroves or bushes on it. The chart says there is an anchorage there. I wonder which country it belongs to, Cuba or the Bahamas?

At 6:45 AM a big red orb lifts above the horizon. Because of the moisture in the air there will be no green flash. At 7:00 AM the upper half of the sun starts to turn yellow and it starts to lose its red orb status.

At 7:01 AM the wind is 8 knots and we're motoring at 6.8 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land.

At 7:04 AM I clear the waypoint in front of us and put in another one at Key West, 89 nautical miles away. At 6 knots we'll be there in 15 hours or about 10:00 PM.

At 7:16 AM I increase the engine RPM's from 2,000 to 2,200 and our speed increases from 6.8 to 7.1 knots. The wind is 8 knots and the apparent wind is 2 knots. It too hot to wear a shirt, so I'm topless.

At 8:13 AM the wind is 8 knots and we're motoring at 7.0 knots thru the water and 7.3 knots over the land. The first of a bunch of Portuguese Man-o-War jelly fish 'sails' by to my port. I'm listening with my headphones to music. At this point in the morning its the soundtrack from West Side Story; a musical tragedy for those too young to know. A modern day Romeo and Juliet.

At 8:55 AM the wind is 6 knots and we're motoring at 7.2 knots thru the water and 7.7 knots over the land.

Breakfast at 10:20 AM consists of bacon, 3 eggs, cut up potato, chilled peach slices and brown bread. Darlene has a piece of brown bread with mayonnaise and bacon on it.

At 10:40 AM we add one more 5 gallons jerry can of diesel to our main fuel tank.

At 11:24 AM I see a BIG splash 45 degrees to starboard about 200 yards away. A minute later I see a fish, maybe a 5-6 foot tarpon, leap out of the water and land horizontally on the water with another big splash. Joel sees this splash, also. If something that big is jumping out of the water to escape something chasing it, I'm not going swimming today.

At 11:32 AM I type one log and a couple of emails.

Our noon position is 24 degrees, 2 minutes North; 81 degrees, 12 minutes West; and we're 54 miles from Key West. The wind is 7 knots and we're motoring at 7.3 knots thru the water and 6.0 knots over the land.

At 12:40 PM we use the satellite phone to send out the log and emails. At about this time we also pass the apex of the Gulf Stream, meaning the current should start getting weaker now.

At 1:00 PM the wind is 5 knots and we're motoring at 7.1 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land.

A number of ships are around us in the Gulf Stream, including the Caribbean Princess, a 951 foot passenger liner heading to 'PR Cays' in the Bahamas; the Aeolian Heritage, a 728 foot cargo ship heading to Galveston; the Yangz 7, a 653 foot cargo ship heading to the Miss (Mississippi) SW Pass; the Oslo Bulk II, a 354 foot cargo ship heading to Mobile; the Gotland Marieann, a 600 foot tanker heading to Quebec; and the Seamuse, a 591 foot tanker heading to Texas City.

At 1:45 PM Joel and I nap and Darlene takes over the helm. As we always do when someone is alone in the cockpit, they wear their harness and are tethered to the boat. Joel gets up from his nap at 3:45 PM and I follow at 4:05 PM.

At 4:14 PM the wind is 2 knots and we're motoring at 7.0 knots thru the water and 7.2 knots over the land. Darlene is mesmerized by the large number of flying fish that are leaping out of our way and 'flying' up to a hundred yards to escape our boat. Because the ocean is so flat, like a pane of glass, its much easier to see these flying fish zoom along the surface of the water. Its comical too as they crash land when entering the water again.

At 4:46 PM I defrost the freezer in record time - 6 minutes. My previous record was 12 minutes. The reason that I halved the time it takes is that the water I used was much hotter than usual because we've been running the engine for days now. The engine heats up the water heater, and since it doesn't have a regulator (we took it off), the water gets 'hospital' or 'MacDonald's coffee' hot.

At 4:55 PM the wind is 1 knot and we're motoring at 7.5 knots thru the water and 7.6 knots over the land. We're 19 miles from Key West.

Dinner at 5:40 PM consists of blackened chicken cooked on the grill by chef Joel; corn-on-the-cob cooked on the grill; Teriyaki rice; and left over green beans and cut up potato.

At 5:59 PM Joel see land fist, 9 miles away; Land Ho! I hate it when he does that. The wind is 3 knots and we're motoring at 7.1 knots thru the water and 7.8 knots over the land.

At 6:40 PM I had to steer around 5 beach ball size white buoys tied together in the water in front of us. If I hadn't seen them we could have easily wrapped the propeller shaft with them. Then Joel would have gone swimming, as he's 'The Fixer,' right Joel?

At 6:58 PM the wind is 6 knots and we're motoring at 7.0 knots thru the water and 7.3 knots over the land.

At 6:59 PM I called the Galleon Marina and Chris advised me that he had a slip for us, even though they were full. Yeah! The Galleon Marina is where we spent one night in January of 2014 because we had to replace our house bank of batteries, which had somehow gotten overcharged and ruined. We motored in to Key West from the Dry Tortugas during a gale. That was fun.

At 7:25 PM we could see over a dozen 'sunset' boats milling around outside of the harbor. Some of these boats were huge gaff rigged schooners carrying up to a hundred or more passengers.

At 8:00 AM we were inside the Galleon Marina and tied up in our slip; the boat back on American soil for the first time in over 28,000 nautical miles and almost 16 months.

Once we were tied up and had the obligatory Captain Morgan welcoming drink, I called the US Customs 800 number in Miami and cleared us all into the country. Joel didn't know his Local Boater's Option number but I was able to get it from the Customs Officer on the phone. However, because Joel has a new passport he has to go to a US Customs office within 24 hours so they can record and verify his new passport number. We'll rent a car and do that tomorrow morning. For those people who aren't familiar with the 'Local Boater's Option' program, it allows Floridians to clear into the country over the telephone instead of in front of a Custom's agent.

I talked to our 'Press Agent' Oscar in Tampa, and he indicated that a local TV station may be calling me tomorrow to set up an interview in Key West. We'll see. He also said that ABC News in Tampa and the Tampa Bay Times were going to be present when we arrive at the BCYC on May 2nd.

Darlene and I hit the showers on the dock at 10:00 PM; then its off to Schooner's Bar on the waterfront for an adult beverage. Joel wanted to go there because Bob, who died in 2009 on his boat (Enigma) during the Regatta del Sol as Sol race that Joel and I were on, drank at this bar with Joel before the race and said (Bob said) that when he dies he'd like it to be while he was sailing. He got his wish.

We find out that today is 'Conch Republic Day' in Key West, where Key West secedes from the Union. And tomorrow at 7:00 PM there will be a pirate battle reenactment in front of Mallory Square on the water; and a Pirate's Ball Saturday night. Who knew?!

We're back on the boat at 11:49 PM, where Joel and Darlene read until 1:02 PM and I finish typing this log.

Brian Fox



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