Days 20 - 22 March 31 – April 2, 2000

Wind in the morning of the 31st was a relief after another night of motoring and we sailed almost all day, wing on wing, at about 3 knots. In the afternoon, the wind died again and we started motoring once more to get through this area of no wind. We motored most of April 1 through 3rd, making only about 80 miles per day. In the evenings there are huge piled up cumulus clouds all around us at sun set and then as the air cools, most of them dissipate until by 2200 the sky is often perfectly clear and I spend the time star gazing. The water is so still and glassy that you can see the stars reflected in the long swells. Occasionally a black cloud will show against the brightly lit sky and we turn on the radar to see if it is a squall, but usually they are all just small clouds. When the wind generator announces that we have wind, we haul out the sails and sail for as long as possible, going back to motoring when there is no wind left. I’m very happy to have the roller furling on the genoa, as with such a huge sail, I would have to get Vlad up to raise and lower it every time we stop or start sailing. I can also reef it on my own in the occasional squalls.

We added about 12 gallons of our spare water into the main tank. We were a bit dismayed to find the water had bits floating in it and have added bleach to the empty water bags to try and clean out whatever it is. Since we are out of green veggies, except for carrots, onions and chayote, I have decided to try growing sprouts.

I missed the Amigo net April 2 because I completely forgot about the Daylight Savings Time change for Mexico. It has no effect on us, because ship’s time is what we choose it to be, although we made a change today also, moving to Zulu –9. We do it more or less based on how we feel about the time of sunrise and sunset and the last couple of days the sun has risen quite late, so we felt it was a good time. The Marquesas are on Zulu-9.5, so one more time change to go when we arrive.

All the diesel from the two big containers we bought in Puerto Vallarta is now in the main tank, transferred by pumping it from the container into the baja filter using a spare outboard tank hose. This leaves us with a full tank (48 gals) plus 10 gals spare on deck.

A third bag of garbage has been moved to the anchor locker. Which is not too bad for three weeks at sea. It is all plastic and tetra paks. Food and paper garbage goes in the sea. We keep a covered plastic container in the galley for the cook to put food waste in as he chops and peels, then toss it overboard when it’s convenient.

Only a few tortillas left so Vlad made bread. As if it were not hot enough in the cabin already! The bread is very good and makes a nice change from tortillas.

Latest fix-it chores include making a replacement wire ring for the whisker pole to which the fore and after guy are attached. The old one was chafing badly against the block to which it is attached, down to just a few strands of wire. We also found that the bimini has chafed on both sides where the sheet blocks are banging against the cloth, so we moved the preventer lines that are supposed to prevent this problem. We will have to put some leather patches on the bimini in those spots to prevent further problems.