day 18

“The Minnow” ARC 2005 Atlantic Crossing

Mike’s Exciting Day 18 Update!

The wind picked up slightly, as predicted. Wow. I believe that this is the
first time the weather condition has even remotely resembled the forecast.
So we decided that we would reef the mainsail in the afternoon, while it was
still light outside.

The potential problems with reefing the mainsail were (1) the outside cover
has been bunching up in numerous places so it could get jammed at an
undesirable location and (2) it could easily break. Every time we move the
mainsail we incur a significant risk of one or the other.

With this in mind, we chose to reef the mainsail to the second reef (about ½
way down). This ended up costing us .5 to 1 knot for a few hours in the
afternoon. But by nightfall, we were glad we made that choice as we saw
steady winds in the mid 30s from time to time throughout the night.

Update on the “Bob-gone/boat-not-breaking phenomenon: Bob still gone, still
nothing broken. Hmm…

Things are pretty well back to normal now. We have adjusted to being
Bob-less, and other than the boat not breaking, things are pretty much the
way they were. This morning as normal, Serge was outside listening to
static-filled French news on the portable SSB (he sure misses his native
language). As normal, Jim was asleep on the couch (Melinda, he is competing
for the “maximum hours of sleep per day” record that you currently hold). As
normal, David was reading a book. And, as normal, I was cheerful,
conversational, and dadblasted chipper all morning.

Unless something significant happens, this should be our next to last day of
the ARC 2005 Atlantic Crossing. I think we’re all ready to get there.

Fishing report:

A dolphin a day keeps the tuna away. We got another dolphin today. Cleaned
it, cooked it, ate it.

Today’s Nautical Term:

Mutiny. A mutiny is when you have a really crappy captain and you get rid of
him. Bob catches on quicker than I thought.

He emailed: “After the mutiny, I was cast adrift. After an interminable
period of drifting aimlessly about the Atlantic, I was hoisted aboard the
M/T Patris. This occurred on St. Nicholas day, the holiday for the patron
saint of seagoers, and insured a year of luck for the Patris and its crew.”

So he hasn’t died yet.

Arts and Entertainment:

Serge and I played an energetic game of chess while enjoying highlights from
Verdi’s Aida.

The movie-watching craze continued tonight. “Master and Commander” was the
top bill. The others watched it in two shifts. I opted to read a book since
I had already seen it.