11-4-2011, A little more substance

I had the morning watch (0300-0700) today and, when it got light enough to see, happened to glance down at the cockpit sole. There was something gross on the teak grate. Only the front and back pieces were intact as they were down in the holes formed by the grate. The middle portion had obviously been stepped by one of us or maybe both of us and was now just this slimy mashed substance. Looked like it might have been a small squid at one time. I cleaned it up and tossed it over the side. Later on, I was sitting on the starboard side and happened to look at the side deck. There were at least 6 small squid lying dead on deck. Flying squid? Who knew? Later, when Keith was forward raising the main, he said he threw at least 10 of them over the side.

The seas today have been pretty rolly. Pretty much like our trip down was. TGFS (Thank goodness for scopolamine). We've had the main up all along to steady the roll but, if it's working I'd hate to see what it would be like without. Last night on my 1900-2300 watch, the wind started piping up a bit. Too dark and too late to consider sailing. However I was watching the main and watching the winds build and thought that reefing the main might be something we should do. You know what they say, "The time to put in a reef is when you first think of it". I hated to wake Keith up but that's how it had to be. He was grateful that I had. We rolled up to the equivalent of the first reef which calmed the ride down a bit. By the time we were done it was nearly time for Keith to come on watch. I had NO trouble dropping off to sleep.

Today, we're getting a little bit of a breeze. Certainly not enough to sail in if we want to reach La Paz by the 13th, but hopefully enough to help the engine out. The engine was heating up again and by the time we had the RPMs down enough so the temperature would drop, we weren't going very fast. Once the temp was down, Keith started experimenting with raising the RPMs a little at a time. So far so good. However, we also decided to unreef the main and unfurl the jib as the wind is putting us on a reach. We've picked up maybe a knot. Won't know for sure until we do the cipherin' a little later. Hard to rely on the GPS speed calculation because it swings all over the place (sort of like the GPS antenna is doing).

Keith made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch along with a couple apple wedges on the side. Just finished chowing down.

The seas right now are grey as can be and so is the sky. Pretty warm, though (the air, not the seas).

Tried to listen to the Southbound net last night but I didn't get the SSB tuned in time and I have my doubts whether or not we'd be able to hear him anyway. We listened for the Chubasco net this morning and the Baja California Net a little later but didn't get anything readable from either one. We'll try Southbound again tonight at 6:00 PM. Tomorrow morning we'll try for Amigo and Sonrisa nets.

This boat is really nice and has lots of storage, room to move around, etc. But the thing that I like the absolute most is that I can sit at the settee writing e-mails and still be able to look out the window and see something besides the inside of the bulwark. Chamisa's radar is kind of fun but I'm not convinced that we need radar yet. Especially since we already have AIS. In short, nice as Chamisa is, I am not lusting after a larger boat.

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