19:36.28 N 43:26.94 W
California Blue
Mark Bashforth / Jayson Bashforth
Wed 5 Dec 2007 21:58
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Blog nr.10 from California Blue
- Whales, whales and more whales!!!!!!!!!!! 5/12-07
Hello Everyone,
It's hard to believe that today is our 10th day at
sea. This is the longest any of us have been on a ocean passage with the
exception of Vic who holds the record at 24 days.
We have now covered over 1630 nm and have about
1070 nm to go.
Crew and ship are fine. We have been able to shower
with some regularity thanks to our water maker and in such small quarters there
is a limit to how much mess you can make. Elliott and Spencer are challenging
that theory however.
Nightwatches last night were fairly uneventful.
Jayson and the boys saw another cargo ship. Still no sighting of any other ARC
yachts. I think we are about 25 nm from the closet boat. The lack of wind
continues to disappoint us. We went back to the Parasailor this morning after
our wind angle changed and we are now getting winds from a more E-SE direction.
They are only 8-12 knots in strength however and we were expecting twice that so
we are having difficulty catching up to the other boats and improving our
overall position until that changes. Since 13:00 UTC we have averaged about 7
knots. Yesterday we had a run of about 162 nm.
Sunrise is now quite late around 09:30 UTC and
sunset is around 20:30 UTC.
In between keeping an eye on the helm the boys read
their books for school. The rest of us did some odd jobs and got on with
our daily routines of feeding the crew and cleaning up afterwards. Spencer's
head is still a mess and we have shut it down till we get to St. Maarten. At
least it's not overflowing anymore.
Shortly before dinner (chili by the way) this
evening we were approached and entertained by a group of whales. We are not sure
what kind or how many but our best guess is there were between 4-6 of them about
7 meters or so in length. At first we were a bit alarmed having heard about
whale and sailboat confrontations before. But these guys just entertained us
surfing up and down waves, circling around the boat and diving under countless
times. We captured this on video and have a picture (photo credit: Spencer)
attached. This was amazing experience that captivated all of us. Interestingly
enough we were playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the time. This is the same
music that we played when we were encountered the pod of dolphins at the
beginning of our trip. So our scientific conclusion is that sea mammals like the
Red Hot Chili Peppers! Who would have thought!
The galley is nice and tidy and Jayson is just
getting ready to start his nightwatch with the boys. Hopefully we will get
a little more wind tonight and tomorrow.
Until tomorrow.
Take care,
Mark and the crew of California
Blue
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