5:35am, Friday Feb 8, 2008, since this post is so important it needs to be explicitly noted when it was started and completed. I just had some coffee and my second fried egg sandwich of the night. We're currently about 4 miles NW of Isla Isabela, and I've slowed down because we're going to get there before the sunrise. You'd think I would have checked that before now, wouldn't you? I mean... yeah, let's arrive after sunrise and go in and anchor, but let's motor-sail all night with very light wind and get there around 6am, but not bother to check what time the sun rises. It rises at 7:35. Ugh.
It is 5:37am, 69 degrees, water temp 77.5 degrees, and only enough clouds in the sky to present an amazing sunrise (in 57 minutes).
5:38am. I'm looking forward to a day or two at anchor to: work on work, work on the boat (autopilot, mailsail furling system (see below), dinghy motor), dive into the water to check on the anchor, snorkel / scuba dive to look at the beautiful stuff and maybe to look for prey. Though the freezer is full enough of tuna at the moment (we caught our second just outside of Cabo), I'd love to get some flaky whitefish.
5:41am. I never really read the garbage placard that's required posting on US-flagged boats. Did you know it's okay to throw garbage overboard? Outside of 3nm from land, you can rip paper into 1" pieces and just toss it overboard. Outside of 12nm you don't have to "grind" it at all. It'll dissolve to fibers again before it ever reaches anything. And bottles and cans make much more sense on the bottom of the ocean than they do in a landfill. Just fill 'em with a bit of water to ensure they sink, and -plonk-.
5:49am. No wind. Just tried to take the mainsail down. Gonna have to wait till daylight. Yeah, that's safe. LeisureFurl, you have no idea how much I hate you. I mean, you'd think I could go pull a rope or ease a rope and the mainsail would go up or come down. But no, there's always a batten that's pushing against the track, or some other friction-inducing issue, or the winch isn't getting enough juice, or the un-roller-stopper-thing isn't releasing, or ...? Alas, I'm too broke to replace this super-expensive but super-bullshitty mainsail system with something that makes sense, like Harken Battcars with a Dutchman flaking system.
5:55am. Now only 2.49 miles N or Isla Isabela and waiting for more light. Sure hope there's an anchorage available - there are only a couple spots on this island, and only room for a couple boats per spot.
5:58am. The sky is starting to lighten, though we're still at least 30 minutes from decent light. Time to get this bright computer out of my face and get my eyes used to the semi-dark.
TT
