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Happy Passover to all. We had a lovely day of sailing today with some sun! For perhaps the first time in my life I was ready for the seder with several hours to spare. The kids and I actually spent them reading and listening to Passover songs on a CD while Michael slept. We later discovered that the 2-3 hour wait in this humidity creates soggy matzah. Note to self: Take matzah out of sealed container at last minute only. The seder was fun, the kids taught us some new things from their learning this year, and the evening ended with that giddy laughter that accompanies sheer exhaustion, while singing the silly songs that close the meal. I immediately went to sleep and Michael and the kids cleaned up. The seder had extended into my much needed pre-watch 8-to-midnight sleep - if I don't get the full 4 hours, taking my entire midnight to 6 a.m. watch is a bit more challenging and I can't usually get through it without falling asleep and therefore needing to wake Michael. Tonight it is squally once again so will need to focus my attention on avoiding these blobs on the radar screen. Am feeling peaceful and fulfilled.
Day 9 Stats:
Distance: 158 miles; Total trip: 1387 miles; Average daily distance traveled: 154 miles
Average Speed: 6.6 knots; Average overall speed: 6.4 knots
Sea Conditions: Half the day had 100% cloud cover, then in the afternoon there was some sun. The day has been quite pleasant with temperatures of about 80 degrees and somewhat humid but the wind cools things off. Seas have been 4-6 foot long period swells coming from behind which means we are riding them nicely. Winds have been from the NE varying from 15-18 knots.
Incident Report: Dodging squalls as we go. There have not been many during the day, and these are easy to spot in daylight. There are many more at night and they show up on the radar screen as clumps. We've only gone through one heavy rain shower, and have not seen any lightning like other boats have reported.
Fish caught: Zero still -- would help if we put our lines in the water. One boat reported to be catching tuna, and another hooked a marlin.
Produce Inventory: Not even worrying about avocados but will soon be playing baseball with them. I lost my dill - just before needing to make chicken soup - but had some frozen so used it instead. Everything else holding nicely.
Meals/Snacks: Breakfast was regular cereal and toast - the last before Passover began. Lunch was salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radishes and feta, together with my mother's 'potato and egg machel' (mixture) with fried onions. Afternoon snack was yogurt and grapefruit. Seder Dinner was egg in salt water, chicken soup with matzah balls, brisket with carrots, onions and celery, kugel, and apple peach cake for desert.
Some additional stats:
1. We've only generated about one small white kitchen bag worth of garbage in the 9 days at sea. All food stuff and paper products go overboard, as do glass bottles and tin/aluminum after being filled with water and sunk.
2. We've now changed our clocks back twice - approx. every 750 miles. It helps to sync the daylight hours to our schedules. There are no hard and fast rules about this, so we just make them as we go. Unfortunately for me, this means that I have not had a sunrise or a sunset on my watches. In any case, all radio nets are based on UTC, also known as Zulu time or GMT. I know I read somewhere what the time zone is in the Marquesas Islands, but I can't seem to find it now. I believe we still have a few more time changes to make before we get there.
-Barb
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At 4/19/2011 10:20 (utc) our position was 08°29.08'N 125°03.39'W
Hi Barb. Jill Asher here!
ReplyDeleteYou were a big topic of discussion at our seder last night with the Gee's and Meyers. I hope you are doing well and having a fabulous journey.
Just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you and your family and wish you safe sailings and a Happy Passover.