Hmmmmm 4/20. I listen to Bill Maher's "Real Time" podcast, and I'm sure he'll be yakking about sparking up or some such. Bill's a true liberal, critical thinker, has raging liberals and raging conservatives on his talk show and presents a variety of points of view. He's also a huge advocate for legalizing marijuana. Given I like the idea of the government staying out of adult people's personal business, I don't have to be a user to appreciate his point of view. What I like the most is how he beats up on the American Democratic party for being a bunch of wimps. Bill also likes guns, thinks there's a huge problem on US college campuses that protect overly sensitive professors and college kids from free speech that they might find offensive, etc. My kinda guy! Also funny as stink. Trevor Noah is my other fave - a black man from South Africa, hugely thoughtful and another critical thinker who is extremely funny. Being raised during apartheid and understanding the complex race relations in South Africa and in the US makes his commentary worth a listen.
Podcasts are something that make long passages a lot more pleasant, and we've got time to enjoy them while still looking after the navigation and sail trim, monitoring autopilot behavior, etc. Engage ears and part of brain, leave eyes and rest of brain for JollyDogs. Works for us.
And they're free!
Anyway, Isabel and I continue to marvel at how well our passage is going. Yesterday the weather was absolutely spectacular, not a cloud in the sky. Solar system topped the batteries to 100% by mid-afternoon, so we used the electric kettle and induction cooktop with reckless abandon, conserving our butane cooking gas for cloudy days. Don't want to run out of energy for cooking, so using extra watts when we've got them stretches the gas and all is well. As any sailor anywhere will tell you, crew morale is highly related to the regularity and quality of the rations, and Isabel does a spectacular job of delivering delicious meals. She spends days before a passage preparing and freezing portions of curries, stews, spicy black beans, etc. for those underway days that are too rough to actually scratch cook a meal. The good news is the wind has come to the SE today and so she's actually contemplating fixing fresh egg salad for lunch and a chicken and veggie stir fry for dinner.
The Polynesians carried pigs in their canoes to help with navigation, because celestial navigation in ancient times kept them going in the right direction, but pigs can smell land well before humans can. As a pilot, I think of the stars getting them to the initial approach fix, then the pigs keep the needles centered for final approach to landing.
Anyway, we're both finally in the groove that generally takes around three days to reach - we're sleeping well, feeling rested during our watches, and no longer dazed and confused. The first couple of days are usually difficult, but after we get in the groove we could continue to for months at sea and feel rested, and we do both love being at sea. Just the two of us.
We expect to encounter the ITCZ somewhere around 5 degrees North latitude, and "enjoy" it's influence and occasionally nasty weather for 2 or 3 degrees, hopefully breaking out on the North side around 8 degrees. Our pal Mike on SV Easy got totally hammered a few days ago, with 40 knot winds and short period 5-meter waves, getting a big rip in his headsail. He told us over the SSB net that at one point he was looking up at his bow, which seemed to be almost vertical to the horizon. Now that's an E-ticket ride we can do without. We're hopeful that things will be a bit more mellow for us, but we'll be prepared for nasty conditions.
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