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American Spirit II - Day 133; Birthday, Early Torrential Rain Shower, Still Sailing Slow & Origin of the Molotov Cocktail; Friday, May 16, 2014



I turned a year older at 12:01 AM today. So did my twin brother David who lives outside Chicago. Actually, being 5 hours behind him he turned older sooner than me this year. Its times like this that you wished you were home with family. Got some Happy Birthday emails from them. Thanks guys and girls! And Joel, to celebrate my birthday, shaved. Next year for my birthday I'll be home. A good feeling.



I went to bed at 1:00 AM and Joel took on watch duties from 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM. Ten minutes after he went off watch at 6:00 AM a big rain storm nailed us. I had already put on my foul weather pants and jacket before it hit. The only problem with the foul weather gear is that its heavy and hot. I put in another reef in the main before the winds hit. Not a lot of extra wind, but you never know. The whole 'storm' was over in 10 minutes.



The sun rose at 6:45 AM. I actually saw it lift above the horizon not entirely obstructed by clouds. As I've said before, its very hard to know exactly where the sun will jump up over the horizon, and exactly when. Joel suggested I use a boat's compass to sight the sun rise and then use the same compass information the next day. Sounds like a good idea.



We have to keep the boat moving at 5.1 knots to arrive at Suwarrow at 9:00 AM Sunday morning. With the winds we've been having, we could easily be sailing at 7 knots or faster. But not fast enough to arrive in daylight. So by slowing down we'll arrive in daylight and not in the middle of the night. If we arrived at dark, we'd then have to wait for sunrise anyway. Our navigation electronic charts are accurate enough to get us thru the pass into the lagoon in the dark, but the danger is the coral heads in the lagoon as you make your way to the anchorage. You can't see them at night. In daylight you can see the different colors of the water and this gives you a pretty good indication of the water's depth. And as we saw in Ahe in the Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia, coral heads can rise up from over a hundred feet to just below the surface.



A negative side effect of slowing the boat down is that our hydro generator won't be giving us enough power to keep our batteries charged. So we'll have to run the generator a couple times a day for 4 to 6 hours total while sailing at under 6.5 knots.



A lot of sun today, which means a lot of blue sky and blue ocean, also. The weather was magnificent. Good birthday weather!



We're having trouble with the flooded batteries, not holding a charge long anymore. When we bought them in Key West, we didn't exactly get the right type of 8D batteries we needed. We really wanted 'deep cycle' but we got 'starting' batteries instead. That was all they had and we were on a schedule to get to the San Blas Islands in Panama. So...we're going to get hold of a hydrometer, test the specific gravity of the batteries, and then decide if they can be 'fixed' or if we need new ones. I'm sure new ones are what we'll need.



How dark does it get, and how quickly, after the sun sets? Since the normal highlight of the day is the sunset, it's actually an interesting process. Once the sun sets, first you get twilight, then dusk and finally night. Time doesn't go from day to night like a light bulb. And even with no moon, the stars themselves will give off a fair amount of light.



A bit of trivia for my readers who are military history buffs. I garnered this tidbit of information while reading a Jack Reacher novel. How did the Molotov Cocktail get its name? Answer: in 1939 the Finns were revolting against the Red Army (Russia), and the Soviet Foreign Minister was a guy named Vyacheeslav Molotov. The Finns used bottles filled with gasoline and cloth wicks and thru them against the Russian tanks. One partisan remarked: "I never knew that tanks could burn so long." Who knew? At any rate, only because the Foreign Minister was named 'Molotov' did the explosive device get that name. If the Foreign Minister was named Smith, it would have been called the 'Smith Cocktail.' Some guys are just unlucky.



At 9:30 AM the morning communication's net was held. Again, all boats checked in and gave their positions to each other, wind speed and direction.



Breakfast after the net consisted of scrambled eggs, an orange and French bread.



At 10:25 AM I shook out one of the reefs in the main.



Our noon position was 14 degrees, 20 minutes South; and 159 degrees, 22 minutes West. 227 miles to go to Suwarrow.



From noon to 1:20 PM I took a nap; and Joel napped from 1:20 PM to 3:00 PM.



At 1:00 PM Avocet passed us flying a beautiful blue Parasail spinnaker. The Parasail spinnaker is different than other spinnakers in that it has a large horizontal slot along its widest part, which allows gusts of air to escape thru it when the wind picks up too much. That 'escape valve' keeps the boat from tilting over in gusts. At least I think that's the concept, anyway.



From 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM I wrote emails and typed the previous day's log.



The sun set at 6:10 PM. No green flash. Clouds again.



The evening net took place at 6:30 PM.



We ate dinner after the net. Blackened Mahi Mahi, baked potatoes and chilled pear halves.



I had one final nap from 7:10 PM to 8:00 PM before my 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM watch.



Since the moon was rising later each day by about 45 minutes (?), it was quite dark when I stood watch. I could see the Big Dipper, minus Polaris, on the starboard side of the boat and exactly 180 degrees on the port side of the boat I could see the Southern Cross. I removed the canvas insert between the dodger and bimini so I could see the Milky Way, stars and planets clearer. Since it didn't look like rain tonight, that seemed like a safe thing to do.



During my watch I had to put in a double reef because we were going too fast again. That slowed the boat from 7 knots to 5.2 to 6 knots.



351 Days until home.



Brian Fox


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