The accelerated trades we’ve been enjoying (or enduring) the past couple of days seem be easing a bit. We’re OK with the wind, but the confused lumpy seas have made moving about the boat challenging and at times quite risky. When we got underway last Friday afternoon, the first couple of hours were pretty ugly, but after rounding the headland and getting past the squalls the good sailing began. We’ve been underway for 196 hours now, having covered 1325 nautical miles at an average speed of 6.8 knots. That does include nearly 24 hours of motor sailing, but for us that’s just part of doing business out here. Today we’ve been at it 19 hours and 45 minutes, covering 137.5 miles at an average speed of 7.0 knots. The seas have been getting progressively smoother so we’re not getting thrown around so much, and if the wind drops a little more and the sea lumpiness continues to decrease, we’ll shake out reef #2 and try our best to keep the speed up. Sailing with reef #1 in is a pretty good policy during overnight periods unless the risk of squalls looks exceedingly low, as that gives us a large tolerance for wind gusts before we have to take action such as reefing back to the #2 position. Given my Rube Goldberg reef #1 attachment system, going to full sails then back to reef #1 requires a bit of effort and additional exposure to injury and getting launched overboard, so we’re a bit thoughtful about when to take that action.
It's a bit challenging sometimes to keep crew morale high when we’re getting thrown around the boat, blasted by salt water spray, and unable to even sit without hanging on. The herky jerky motion also makes sleeping in the rack or napping on the settee less much less restful. We’re both delighted that things are starting to settle down a bit before too much fatigue and crankiness sets in. With 856 miles to go and the current forecast, we’re hopeful we’ll drop the hook in Reed’s Bay this coming Friday morning, and you can bet I’ll be ringing the Customs and Border Protections phone as we’re taxiing in to the anchorage. We need to get cleared in so we can get off the boat and go for that magical meal that Jimmy appreciates soooooo much.
What’s that you ask? Why heck, it’s a “CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE”. I think most all cruisers, well at least Americans understand the significance of that song, and even my lovely English lady Isabel loves her a nice dirty cheeseburger. There’s an American lady who ended up at Huahine, a lovely island in the Leeward Societies, who found herself a local fella then started a burger joint. Izzy’s Burgers offers up a simple menu of top flight black angus beef burgers with cheese and other critical accessories, great fries, and you can further accessorize by having a Coke and a smile! Izzy serves up a righteous cheeseburger and it’s been many months since we’ve had one. My Izzy got the ball cap too!
It’s pretty clear that the first chance we have at Hilo, we’re going to hike down to the local joint that serves a great cheeseburger and icy cold craft ales on tap and have us some. Some ice cream to top it off will also be in order. That’s the arrival meal of choice, and afterwards there will be plenty of time to go out for whatever else we fancy.
Pizza! That’ll be the next order of business, but we’ve also got all the bits and pieces and the technology to make a great pie right here on the boat, so unless we find a seriously respectable pizza joint with icy craft beer on tap, that’ll be something we do on JollyDogs. We also have plenty of other more healthful options on board, and a bit of that overpriced Bordeaux in the bilge, so we can power through if we must. Still, it’s nice to think about a cheeseburger and icy beer, such a simple and wonderful meal.
Well, what’s your fantasy?
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