Busy Night / Busy Day

Gail here - John is about 1/3 of the way home. He has about 1,500 miles to go which will take about another 12 days. Right now he is deciding whether to sail further north to go over the high pressure area or start to motor through the middle of it.

Dear,
During my off watch, midnight to 6AM, I got about 4.5 hours of sleep - not bad. But was the boat ever busy! It looks like we picked up an odd assortment of debris while sailing last night. Fortunately we felt no bumps or knocks on the hull. So, what did we get?? To begin my 6-9AM watch with, we got to clear about 4 ft of what looked like old style fishing net from the Duogen propeller. Then, when the sun got higher, I spotted something that looked light blue trailing in the water off the stern. I removed my sunglasses to make sure it wasn't just the effect of my polarized lenses, and yep, it was still there. And, forward of the light blue was a sort of tanish looking line. Hmmm.

Since a breakfast of French toast was just being served, we ate, then went to work preparing for a snorkel dive to check things out and remove the offending whatever. We hove to, and 20 minutes later in my best imitation of James Blond (according to Scott) I was ready to jump in. Less than two and a half minutes later we had about 30 feet of a light weight synthetic net onboard, which is now dried and will come home with us so someone else isn't at risk for snagging it. When did we pick up that net? Last night? The night before? Who knows? Fact is we'll never know.

Yesterday the boat was moving frightfully slow on anything other than a beam reach that sailing was sooo frustrating. It is true the winds were light 8-10 kts apparent, but unknown to us, could this net have been more balled up on the propeller, thereby also contributing to our slow progress? - Possibly! But we'll never know. Fact is it's gone now and the winds up. And, even though we're sailing deep, we're booking at about 6 to 7 kts in 8 to 11 knots of apparent wind.

In the process of cleaning up after my swim, I spotted a 10 inch squid on the port mid deck by the galley port light. In its death the poor squid slimed the entire area with its inky camouflage - Yuk. We got most of it off but some will need to be cleaned dockside.

Early this afternoon the wind clocked aft and for a while the seas were quite confused and washboardy, but then a new wave train started flowing with the wind so by dinner we found ourselves flying along at 7 to 8 knots with the wind slightly aft of the beam. A really sweet ride considering that we are only flying white sails.

With a 2/3rds moon in the eastern sky, our dinner of Mahi Mahi tacos accompanied by a bottle of chardonay was enjoyed by all. The chef? None other than Scott. Not only is he a great sailor, but an awesome cook as well!

Music 1200; 09/10; 24 Hr Run = 133 NM; Course Made Good = 945 NM
Music: 21:00; 09/09
Current location: 35 57.004 N 149 58.151 W
Current boat speed: 7.3 kt, Winds: 12-15
Heading approximately 060-070 deg magnetic