Day Two

Position at time of writing:
17 37.94N
109 19.05W
Heading 210T

We are slowly adapting to life at sea. Yesterday the winds picked up to 20 knots in the late morning and they haven’t let down since. Hydroquest has averaged a boat speed of 7 knots + over the past 36 hours. We are moving! And in the right direction! With the winds have come lively seas so we’ve been bouncing around a lot, trying not to bump into things on the boat, and having a hard time sleeping.

Due to the conditions, my birthday party was postponed. The big red duffel bag with cards and presents in it got stored at the very bottom of the port lazarette (aka the garage). Even though Will offered to go lazarette diving to get it out, I knew he would come up feeling horrible and looking green. Katy had offered to bake a cake, but there was no way that was going to happen either. So – birthday party will be rescheduled once these seas flatten out a bit.

We’re all still feeling pretty good considering the conditions. Katy is onto the ginger tablets which should help her mild nausea.

I was on watch from 4:00am – 6:30am this morning. I had the egg timer set for 15 minute increments and every time I started to nod off, I heard a weird buzzing noise. I shone my headlamp around the cockpit, at the sails, and at various lines, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. After sunrise, Will found the culprit – a flying fish trapped under the cockpit floorboard. Hydroquest’s deck revealed more ill-fated fishies, and one baby squid.

Other than that, we’ve seen very little out here. We passed three freighters yesterday and one this morning. Ben and Katy also saw a large fishing boat. We all had a good chat with a bird yesterday.