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Sweet Dream - Day 251 September 23, 2019



In the morning, after the great golden orb ascended to a burning height, the wind came. So softly at first that we seriously flirted with the idea of putting up “the bull”, our cantankerous asymmetrical reacher. Thankfully, the wind direction wasn’t all that great in relationship to the waves, and we were rolling a lot. May as well skip the rodeo and just put up our favourite rig of wing on with the staysail in the middle to dampen the roll. We made the right choice. By the time Sweet Dream had her wings spread we were clipping along at a smart pace. It was a glorious sailing day all day. At morning radio net time we passed a good size fish boat bouncing in the waves next to two of those odd package things and a long line of floats with wires sticking up. Now at least we know that those weird package-looking things have something to do with fishing. We could see the big lights mounted on the back of the boat. Aha...these are probably the same sort of fish boats we encounter at night with the big bright lights. We gave them a wide berth, and shared our find with the radio net.
After a couple of routine chores were completed, we set to reading. Captain is reading Swallows and Amazons and I began Nelson Mandela’s ‘Long Walk To Freedom’. I figured that since we were headed to South Africa, it would be a good time to learn a little of the history of these amazing people. All throughout our journey I have tried to read something about where we are going next, as we were sailing towards a place, and I love the world as a classroom idea, even for someone as old as I, there is always something new to learn.
In the late afternoon I came up from a nap to find us less than a quarter of a mile from another boat in our fleet. I was all for moving to starboard, away from them, and Captain said No. But our closest point of approach was going to be 282 FEET! I am completely unnerved when other boats approach within one mile of us, so I want to give them the courtesy of a wider berth. Oy vey! Captain’s solution was to hail them on the radio. We did, and also, eventually moved over, the comfort margin became better, and after their Captain said he didn’t know that we were so close to him, Lars asked if our AIS signal was transmitting. The other Captain said to wait while he checked, then came back saying that yes we were transmitting, and that we were a dangerous target. And to think I was concerned that they might feel we were crowding them! (1/4 of a mile away and they hadn’t even noticed we were there...in broad daylight!) Very disconcerting! This made my desire to give other boats plenty of searoom a valid point.
By suppertime the wind had moved south enough that we could fold our wings for the night, put the Genoa on the starbrd side with the main, tuck a couple of reefs in, and settle in for a long night of rocking and rolling in the big surf coming up from the south as we barrel along the Indian Ocean.


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