Author: Pete
Location: 00º 36.577N’ 87º 43.819W’
Date: 17:00 March 15 to 17:00 March 16
Day 7 at sea.
Yesterday was calm and slightly overcast. We had three squid lures in the water, but no bites! Dang! Perhaps we were sailing too slow for our lure size. Made 108 miles, ran 4 knots most of the time.
Felix and I worked on a plumbing project to make better use of our idle holding tank. It was a good day for it, being flat. Our repair of the outhaul car is holding great.
Yesterday Miranda was standing watch at the bow and gave a shout. We all ran out to see what was up. A hundred feet off our starboard a pair of thin black fins cut the water. I could almost hear the theme music, duh DUMP… duh DUMP… SHARKS! I thought they only swam with their fins out of the water like that when prompted by cinematographers to scare moviegoers. Needless to say, there was no swimming.
Last night the stars were out in force, raking above us as we chilled in the cockpit after a beef stroganoff dinner. The moon has been rising late, last night at 4AM, so most of the night is dark dark dark. Great for stargazing. We are at the point where you can still see the Big Dipper, Ursa Major, but can’t see the North Star it points to. Polaris is just on the northern horizon, out of sight. In the other half of the night sky the Southern Cross points generally southward. We’re heading southwest with it 45 degrees off our port bow.
I walked out on deck with my headlight and looked out to the empty sea on watch to see hundreds of little eyes staring back at me. The sea was full of finger-length squid! I pulled out a spotlight and watched them go by the boat for a while. They darted and jumped in the light, unhappy to be so exposed. Occasionally a forearm-sized squid would go by, pale in the light, and zoom quickly away. Pretty neat. I’m going to imagine that’s why no one is biting on our squid lures. Ruined their appetites on the real thing.
More later from Tayrona.
Oh wait… we saw more jumping dolphins… if that doesn’t brighten your day, I don’t know what will.
