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Lexington - Captain Bob:3/16/17. 9* 51' south. 123*. 33' west



We have done well as reported we had a small rip in the outer edge of one of our two twin head sails. We repaired it and it is back up as we are heading along at 7-8 knots. Yesterday we had a 180 mile day. That is why we did not want to take a chance on ripping the sail beyond repair. This is a very lazy sail plan. It is moderately forgiving. To do it right we probably should only sail it 20-25 degrees off dead down wind. If we take it a little further it will catch wind on the wrong side (called back winded) and the sail will slap back with a big crack like vigorously shaking out a rug. I think that may have caused the rip.

We did see dolphins swimming at the bow of the boat when we were repairing the sail. Some of us think they may like the sound of the engine. My thought is that we know they like to swim in and out of the bow wake. I am thinking that they may have been there several times and we just were not there to see them. We have seen very little wild life. We have seen a few birds, one pod of pilot whales,dolphins today and caught no fish.

I am still working on celestial navigation. I did not do much today because of the sail repair. I have a DR running and hopefully will check it with a noon sight tomorrow. A DR is dead reckoning where you plot you course and distance traveled. Then you adjust where you are by celestial sights. Hopefully it will work out to be in the right hemisphere.

Our boat is functioning very well. Morris Yachts are truly blue water boats. Blue water boat is a term for a boat built to take the vigorous sailing done to cross oceans. It starts with the design of the boat my a naval architect. There are a lot of specifications in the design. There are all kinds of measurements and ratios. A stark contrast would be a racing boat where the design is for speed and lightness. A racing boat would have a flatter bottom, long keel and light weight. My boat is big and heavy. It is very forgiving, that is it will stay up right with the water on the outside and the pointy end up even if I am not the best sailor. My boat is built for strength not light weight. Hopefully it would hold together in the beating of a storm. If you are at all interested, Morris Yachts has a good web site at www.morrisyachts.com. They are very nice people.

May fair winds fill your sails with emotional prosperity.
Bob

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