Daily Log for the Minnow

Friday, December 02, 2005
noon
18°15'N, 42°06'W

We're a just little over 1100 miles from St. Lucia, about 47 days by my calculation. On Wednesday, the generator died. That's not
too big a deal, because we can charge batteries using engines and solar panels, except that our watermaker takes too much 110v
current to run off the inverter which runs off the batteries. In other words, we cannot convert salt water to fresh water.

Salt water is lousy to drink, and only marginally better to wash in. We have enough water, coke, and diet coke on the boat to get us
to shore and beyond, but it's a lot more comfortable with plenty of fresh water to wash dishes, clothes, and people.

The generator would run for a bit and then quit, shorter periods each time. Like fuel starvation. Then it stopping running
altogether and the gages stopped working too.

After changing filters, bleeding air, and lots of etc. and discussion, the time finally rolled around when the generator company in
Seattle opened yesterday. They gave us some things to check. The problem was a bad breaker. It apparently would flip off from
vibration at first, then opened permanently. Jim repaired that, and now we're clean!

We normally bring the fishing lines in at night, becuase it's not easy to clean a fish down on the steps in the dark, and we usually
only have one or two people awake at night. Last night someone forgot. This morning before sunup (yes, I was up before sunup!), I
heard the line running out on one of the poles. I reeled an extremely mean looking fish.

It's 43 inches long, 2.5 inches tall, and 2 inches wide. It has a giant mouth with large, mean looking teeth. It must get thicker
when it eats, because its opened mouth is a lot wider than its body.

Tropical Storm Epsilon has messed us up here. We were planning a more or less straight shot to St. Lucia, but the storm came up and
put east wind where we were planning on west wind. So we had to go south. Some boats got ahead of us in the process. We're
considering torpedoes.

There's a band of mixed up air between the west wind above and the east wind to the south. We've been trying to cheat our way west,
sometimes getting too close or inside the bad air. The good news is that within 24 hours, we should have some persistent,
consistent, resistant east wind pushing us west. But if I recall, that's what I said before Tropical Storm Epsilon

Water temperature is 87°. Laundry is hanging on the boat. I think we caught two edible fish yesterday. The baritone serenades I've
been offering in the middle of the night have received mixed reviews. I like them, and Serge, David, Jim, and Mike don't. I think
20% is certainly a high enough approval rating to continue.