Looks like we're gaining on it

2º 14.294s 127º 03.170w

Wed May 01 2019

JollyDogs and her trusty crew departed the Banderas Bay “roadstead” anchorage by La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico on April 16th, 0445 Pacific time. We haven’t seen land since we passed the Socorro Island chain of Mexico on April 18th. It’s been at least a week since we even saw another boat of any sort.

The Pacific is a great big ocean. Almost nothing out here except an enormous amount of water. Seems like a big waste of space, as the dad of the young Jodie Foster’s character said in that movie “Contact”.

Isabel and I visited the VLA, or Very Large Array, while driving through New Mexico a bunch of years ago. Really cool place to behold if you’re a SciFi geek. Giant radar dishes on 3 separate tracks that stretch out like spoke of a wheel for many miles. There’s a visitor’s center where they make an effort to explain radio astronomy to ignorant slobs like me, but probably what most folks like most are the photos that depict the movie scenes that were shot on location.

Last night on the 2200 - 0100 watch the sky was clear, the visibility excellent, and there was the Southern Cross staring down from the heavens. Yahoo, we’re in the Southern Hemisphere for sure now! Makes me feel small, but certainly not alone knowing there are millions or billions of other suns out there. Maybe 1 in a million has a habitable planet. Maybe 1 in a billion has evolved intelligent life.

Wups, going down the rabbit hole again. Obviously too much time to think, but that’s a conversation for another time.

Anyway, Thad had the 0400-0700 watch and when I got up to spell him, he showed me the most interesting amoeba looking thing on the radar screen. Pretty impressive rain event, but fortunately no screwy winds. As we’re motoring anyway, I fired up the watermaker to replenish our tank, and Thad crashed until we’re through the visible moisture. Hopefully the wind will settle down to something helpful and we’ll stow the screecher, hoist the Parasailor and set up for a nice downwind sail.

We’ve come over 2000 miles so far; 2058 across mother Earth according to the electronic log. Average speed of 5.7 knots. Maximim speed of 12.6 knots. 362 hours and 29 minutes.

We’ve got less than 1000 miles to go, no matter how you slice and dice it. We’re pretty much following a great circle route now, making slight course adjustments when coach Jamie Gifford sees something interesting in the higher resolution data he can access. Interesting can be helpful or adverse current, or something more subtle like what his experience tells him regarding wind versus wave angles and what will ultimately be a more comfortable and efficient point of sail. We do look forward to his daily email updates, and we feed back a full compliment of weather observations for him to bounce against the higher fidelity weather data he can access.

We’ve got our bets placed on the arrival date and time. As my helicopter test pilot pal Dave Guthrie used to say when we launched off for a cross country ferry flight, nothing to do now but wait. . .