36°26.9’N 38°15.3’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 6.4 knots (sailing)
Heading: 095
Distance from Bermuda: 1,130nm
Distance to Horta: 476nm
ETA (Horta): Sunday May 31
Hmmm. Each day really is beginning to seem much the same as the one before. Highlights of yesterday were seeing 3 pods of dolphins and two whale sighting. I saw neither of the latter as each comprised seeing the tail as the animal took a dive and each time I was looking the wrong way. We passed the one week and two thirds point around the same time. This was celebrated with beer (it was a Bud Light so the term beer is a bit loose) and nachos up on the bridge. The latter was a nice surprise delivered by capt John.
We watched another movie last night, this time it was Across the Universe. Neither Jim and Bob had seen it before and both made notes to acquire for their collections at home. First stint of night shift was overcast and very dark. I could just see the horizon ? barely. For a while the boat lights were all turned off and all came up to watch the phosphorescence. This was not what I expected as I’ve heard about this before and I expected some sort of milky glow. What we got was something more akin to fireflies in the water. The water literally sparkled ? lots of tiny flashes around the boat. Jim said it was a 100 times better during his previous nights shift. He also got to see both whales today. For about 15 seconds I could swear some large fish or mammal was swimming alongside us. This was due to seeing a ghostly specter in the water ? a fish shaped shadow in the sparkles moving along with us. This could also be explained by a combination of the dark, erratic sleep and (according to Jim again) drugs. If it is the latter then something must have been spiked.
My second shift last night was similar to the second one the previous night. It was slightly better in that the winds picked up enough for me to try turning off the motor which worked. This woke up John who came up to find up what was up. We then set the genaker. We have been sailing thus since.
Jim’s last feature in today’s blog is as my sous-chef for last nights dinner where I made salad and pasta. I know this is not complicated but I don’t cook normally and this was my first preparation on this voyage. Up till now I have covered the washing up duties.
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