We would have liked to sail more, but the winds have been really light, we wanted to get there sometime this year, and we thought it was a good chance to see how the motor works under extended usage and how long much fuel is consumed. I don't trust the fuel gauge - the needle jumps around too much. We think at this point there is just over half a tank left - and right now we are sailing, albeit very slowly. But we are only 40 miles away, and can't enter the mooring estuary until Wednesday at noon due to the tide requirements, so we have plenty of time. We will anchor outside the estuary and will make water and stuff while we are waiting.
Right now Mike just called down to me that there are more dolphins playing around the boat. You never get sick of watching them. If there aren't too many at once, we try to find distinguishing characteristics for each one and then name them. Yesterday I had Freckles, Striper, and Greyback. All three named for obvious reasons. The bigger a fuss you make over them, the more they jump around.
Sunday night we had a brief scare - we entered an area where there was lots of thunder and lightning and it looked as though we were going to get hit hard. The wind cranked up to about 15 knots really fast, and Mike got me up (these things always happen in the middle of the night) to help reef the sails down and get everything ready for a storm. There were a lot of lightning strikes pretty close to us, but of course because we were so well prepared it never actually hit us. It was exciting though, and we got to really zip along for a while there. Last night we saw the same thing happen in the same place, but we were well away from it and just saw it from behind. I love lightning if it is not close enough to cause any trouble. A lightning strike to a boat can cause all the electronics to die an immediate and permanent death, even when the boat is correctly "grounded." It is a rare occurrence, but it does happen. And Mike is particularly frightened of it because twice in his life (as a kid in Missouri) he has been so close to a strike that it knocked him down. I guess that would make anyone a bit gun shy, so to speak.
So anyway, we are almost there and I am really looking forward to a LONG shower, clean clothes, and a restaurant meal cooked by someone else. Because of our awesome new fridge, we have cold beer and allow ourselves to have one for dinner and one during the afternoon. We do not pound beers while sailing! Before we left, we bought tamales and two roasted chickens, both of which have made really good, easy to fix meals. But I still have to clean up! Yesterday I actually ate some oatmeal. I make it for Mike all the time, but usually I won't eat it because I was pretty sure I did not like it. I never liked hot cereal of any kind (oatmeal, Malt-o-meal, Cream of Wheat) when I was a kid, so I figured I did not need to start eating it now. And I don't like things with a gloppy consistency. But I tried it and lo and behold it was not bad. I did have trouble with the consistency, though. I ate mine with blackberry jam in it instead of milk and sugar. I figured the milk would just make it gloppy and runny, and the sugar is sweeter than I usually like. But I do make oatmeal pancakes (just add oatmeal to Aunt Jemima and fiddle with the liquids) and I like those with blackberry jam, so I figured why not? I might have some again, who knows. But it is hard for me to try things I think I don't like, and so this is a big step for me. I am not usually a really adventurous eater, fried grasshoppers not withstanding.
That is all for today - I have to get up on deck and help with the sail change. The next post will be from our mooring ball in Bahia Del Sol, El Salvador!
"We believed in Ragged Dick, P.T. Barnum, Diamond Jim Brady, in Andrew Carnegie, D.B. Cooper, Jackie Robinson. In the classless society society, upward mobility, the law of the jungle. We'd seen all the movies, read all the books. We never doubted that we would make it, that one day we would be fat cats in the mansion on the hill. Never. Not for a moment. After all, what else was there?" (T. Coraghessan Boyle. "Budding Prospects")
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