BLOG #3 Gilbert Loesel 111008
November 10, 2008....
Standby Captain Jim handed over the computer to the “ships carpenter” for the purpose of “blogging” what ever that is... here goes.... first I got to spend the night with our lovely cook... that is we stood 2000 to midnight and 0400 to 0800 watches together, mostly under some nice clear skies, not like the night before when we all had our socks blown off... I am sure Captain Jim made mention of “the night of horrors”...my comment are as follows: “just what hell am I doing out here”... just kidding.... back to last night... Sherry and I motored for about one hour into some great winds and had a great night sail and saw a wonderful sunrise...the sun was breaking through some distant line squalls which ended up gone by the time we hit that spot in the ocean.... after breakfast it was time to see how the repair to the drink holder worked... as I removed all of the “tape clamps” and the Spanish Windless I held my breath to see if it all stayed together... yeaaaaaaaaaa ... it did and it was remounted in front of the wheel making everyone happy.. Also created another Nyanza photo op.... the winds were really light today so our noble Captain ordered the spinnaker up ... with the help of Jamie up she went and we started “bleeding” to that is making the boat go almost as fast as the wind... you figure it out... it worked and we had several good hours of sailing ... keep in mind the more you run the engine in gear you [speaking of Jamie, for those of you who do not know it, Jamie is my nephew, what a lucky guy I am, for sure he is one great sailor and a wonderful shipmate, I could not think of very many sailors who I would rather go to sea with!!!!] give up part of your handicap ... in that department we are doing well (we think) ... because of the relatively calm seas we added 18 gallons of fuel from our “Jerry Cans” who ever the hell Jerry is and only managed to spill about one or two pints.... now it is onto dinner... this one is hard to beat... under clear skies a mild wind (motor running and Otto steering) Sherrrrrie our “chef” ... turned out a Thanksgiving Dinner fit for a “Captain and Crew”... turkey .... stuffing... sweet potatoes ... cranberry .. hot rolls .... GOOD TO THE VERY LAST BITE... oh yes one last thing... tonight we were going to have a celebration and give Sherry a very special gift however our Captain (who thinks he is so smart) couldn’t find it.... oh yes he also gave up fishing today... oh yes did he mention yesterday that he forgot to take the barb protector off the lure and it dragged all day with a piece of plastic on tip.... well that is enough ragging on the old Cap... actually I would like to comment on his skills as a sailor... “this boy knows how to sail and handle his ship and crew at all time... if it wasn’t obvious before “the night of horrors” proved his knowledge and skills” ... oh yes did I mention the fact that he didn’t read the fuel gage very well which lead to our polluting the Atlantic Ocean, mentioned above.... time for bed have to go on watch at midnight with him....ggl p.s. as of 1800 today we have covered 476 nautical miles or 36% of the course ... or 536 regular old miles...Gib
