I gave in and started the engine last night. I needed to charge my batteries, so I figured I could run the engine in gear for a few hours during the middle of the night and at least make a few miles headway at the same time. So between midnight and 3:00 I motored along at about 4.5 knots. The sea was completely calm. I could see individual stars reflected on its surface. It is beautiful, but spooky, to be on a sea this big and this flat and this dark.
The battle against the light air continues. I am lucky to make 75 miles per 24-hour day now. I have nearly 1,400 miles to go. The arithmetic is depressing. The forecast is for more of the same for at least a week. So I probably have about three weeks left to Panama. By then I will be really, really tired of being on this boat. I assumed that I could be out here for a month getting to Panama. I didn’t think it would take six weeks.
Small problems have arisen. One (maybe not so small) has to do with the gooseneck connection between the boom and the mast. I discovered yesterday that the six screws that hold the gooseneck backing plate to the mast had worked loose. Worse, one of the six holes in the mast is now stripped so I can’t refasten that screw so easily. I suspect the problem arose due to the banging of the boom back and forth for days on end in all this light air. I took some thin, high-strength line and lashed around the mast at the gooseneck and then cinched it down tight. I certainly hope this holds to Panama. Once I am there I will have to drill out the holes and then re-tap them one size bigger and put in new screws.
I have found two bugs on board. One very clearly was a cockroach and the other might have been a small roach. I worry that I got them aboard in Cabo.. I noticed an announcement at the marina that management was fumigating and requested boaters to also fumigate their boats to deal with “the infestation.” I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now I am not so sure…. The last thing I need is a bug infestation out here.
Some readers have expressed skepticism about my flying fish story. So I am enclosing a picture of two flying fish that landed on deck the night before last. There is also a squid. They also seem to hop aboard with some regularity.
And then there is the hitchhiking bird. I see these birds out here almost constantly. They seem to travel in pairs, though sometimes 10 or more show up at once. They are quite graceful, swooping low over the water, gliding just inches above the waves. I have no idea what they are called. The wind was so light yesterday and the boat was moving so slowly that one of them decided to pay a visit. He landed on the bow pulpit and stayed for 15 or 20 minutes, allowing me to get quite close. If anyone knows what these birds are called and knows anything about them, send me a message. I’m curious.
Drifting toward Panama,
David