Sunday May 17,09
Had a good night watch.
When we came on watch the spanker had been taken in so when I was on helm the steering was much
more consistent than yesterday. The wind has backed around to NNW and dropped to force 3. The swells
are still running but they are smoother and the ship only does the big rolls every 4th or 5th wave now
We saw a pod of whales heading East off our stern and shortly thereafter Lynsey came charging back to
the wheel from the chart house and grabbing the wheel ordered hard right! There was a whale sleeping
directly in our path. It woke up and sounded just as we passed it within 20′ or so. You’ld think with all the
racket we make under power that it would have heard us coming before then.
Last night was brutal trying to sleep. I kept rolling across my bunk and there was something banging around that sounded like it was right by my head. About every 15 minutes I would get up and try to find it
only to fall asleep again when the noise stopped. Eventually I determined that it was John’s rig, ie his knife
and marlin spike, that was hanging on the divider between our bunks. I carefully reached in and unhooked
it without waking him up and I was good for a few hours :-)
I think the first item of business, once I’m finished this of course, is a nap.
More later…
Just got off of our afternoon watch which was very busy. We had a information session by the Captain
showing us some of the potentially ugly weather looming out there. Most of the day we motored through a
dead calm with a steady swell from the NE. It looks like we will be crossed by a cold front later tomorrow
which will bring strong winds from the SW that will then shift to the NE which will be rotten if we are in
the Gulf Stream by then. The Gulf Stream flows NE so the wind will be against the current which sets up a
very nasty wave pattern. There is also a gale moving NE up the approaching cold front that we may get a
chunk of tomorrow as well.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
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