Today was Isabel’s 50th birthday. She got emails from about a zillion people, and I enjoyed reading them to her this morning while we were sipping our coffee. We polished off the last of the fruitcake she made for the passage (it’s good with coffee) and enjoyed fresh mango and pamplemouse for breakfast. I did my best to spoil her all day, preparing both lunch and dinner. Well, that’s only partly true, because she had already made and frozen mushroom soup for lunch and spaghetti sauce for supper. Hey – but I did make the noodles! And heated everything up. And did the dishes.
My treat for her today was a batch of peanut butter oatmeal raisin cookies – from the Mark Bittman “How to Cook Everything” book. They came out fine, and we’ll be able to eat cookies (worry not, they’re slimming) all the way to Hilo. Speaking of Hilo, we just passed 666.6 miles to go! I looked around for Satan, but only saw a cargo ship called the African Buzzard. It’s only the third AIS target we’ve seen on this entire passage, and the only vessel that’s gotten close enough to lay eyes on. Matter of fact, it got about as close as I’d prefer, and had it gotten much closer there might have been a rather heated discussion over the VHF. As it was, I did DSC the vessel with the VHF and it eventually acknowledged, which is supposed to create a digital record (i.e. evidence) in their ship’s log. I let the VHF switch to channel 8, the programmed ship to ship frequency, then made my voice call twice to the ship’s bridge. There was no response, and I’m betting that whoever was standing watch didn’t speak any English. To think that nobody was on watch on a ship nearly 700 feet long, steaming along at 13 knots, that would be “not good” to contemplate. Our tracks indicated that we would be getting pretty darn close, and even though we’re under sail and technically have write of way, Saint Peter isn’t going to care much.
I couldn’t tell if the ship altered course by a couple of degrees, but it did pass astern about a mile and a half. It looked large. Turns out there are pretty good reasons to stay awake and alert and keep an eye out – that’s why we call it “standing watch”. I did have fun fiddling with the radar target alarm, setting up a protection zone that the ship violated, and finally setting off an audible alarm which probably awakened Isabel. Bad form
The weather seems to be behaving so far and we’re hopful that we’ll have good sailing the rest of the passage to Hilo. There’s a high pressure ridge over the Hawaiian island chain that might wreck the sailing wind for us later in the week, but it’s a bit too early to tell. No reason to get worked up over a possibility, and it’s fair to say that the weather folks can barely get 3 days right, so anything past that we view as pure conjecture.
We’re both feeling pretty good and the freezer has been emptied enough that we’ve declared the rest of the passage a fishing expedition! We’re hoping for a mahi-mahi, maybe a wahoo, and a tuna. About a meter long is a manageable fish, so we’ll set lures that hopefully won’t attract a 3 meter bill fish. Those guys always take our lures and even the line sometimes, generally without even giving us a show.
We’re gathering actionable intelligence on critical things in Hilo, including where to get a craft beer and who does the best cheeseburger. I’m looking for all intel on Hilo Brewing Company anyone can provide- including hours, what’s on tap right now, and if they’ll fill my 2 liter growler! Please send intel to:
WDG9444@SAILMAIL.COM
Cheers!
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