August 29, 2008 Friday

Bert came up at 3:00 A.M. and relieved me. We tried running closer and closer to shore to find less current and increase our speed over the ground but no luck. So Bert decided to try the opposite, turned and headed out to sea, I went to bed. I got up at 8:00 A.M. and discovered that Bert had found better conditions farther off shore. We had now been making 4.5 to 4.6 knots over the ground all morning. Bert cooked up some corn fritters for breakfast. I had been watching a squall on the radar chasing us on our port quarter and it looked to arrive momentarily. Perhaps we will get some rain. We have had no rain since leaving the Caloosahatchie. Nancy took the watch at 11:30 A.M. while Bert and I got some rest.

I awoke from my nap to hear Bert calling out “Dolphins!”. A family of seven dolphins was playing in the pressure wave created by the bow of the boat. The bow wave creates conditions that allow the dolphins to “body surf”. I grabbed my camera, laid down on the foredeck, and hung over the bow of the boat, taking lots of photos and video from just a few feet away. The dolphins played there for over an hour. Their strength and stamina is very impressive.

Dolphins

Dolphins. Click to view larger.

It was very hot and humid today. I stayed inside in the air conditioning as much as possible. The temperature outside was 88F but the humidity was 78 percent. Wow. We ate lunch and then as we came out from the protection behind Cozumel the swells from the Caribbean began to beat us up. I took the watch while Bert got some rest. I asked Bert if I could try for more speed closer to shore and he said yes, so I began to experiment. One must be careful because close to shore the depth suddenly changes from over 1,400 feet to just 60 feet. Then in another sudden step it changes from 60 feet to just 6 feet. But I was careful and fairly successful, raising our speed over the ground from 4.2 to 5.5 knots.

Once of countless ships we encountered

Once of countless ships we encountered. Click to view larger.

The seas got rougher and rougher and when I had to make a turn that brought the seas from quartering to beam seas, it got even worse, of course. Bert returned to the bridge and decided to try to find a better ride. He turned in towards the shore even closer. We got close enough to see the breakers at Bahia Espiritu Santo. We then turned to put the seas on our quarter but soon had to turn south again. There was just no avoiding getting knocked around if we wanted to hold our course south. There were some very good rolls and a couple of snaps that threw us around. One hit us when I was out on deck using binoculars to locate a light and it threw everything in the salon to the floor. It was a mess. So I gathered everything up and placed it into bins and then restrained things with line. Then I checked the workshop and found all the drawers to all the tool boxes flying completely in and out with each roll so I fixed that and locked them down. Haha. It was a funny sight and I should have taken a video of it but I had my hands full with keeping stuff where it belonged and keeping myself on my feet in the boat.

Dolphins.

Dolphins. Click to view larger.

During the evening Bert plotted some marks and waypoints for me to steer to during my watch. By late evening we had a pretty decent ride and a speed of 5.3 knots.