16:16.326 N 50:41.45 W
California Blue
Mark Bashforth / Jayson Bashforth
Sat 8 Dec 2007 18:56
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Blog nr.13 from California Blue - Reflections
from the teenagers onboard 8/12-07
Hello Everyone,
Last night was very windy with gusts up to 30 knots
+, lots of squalls and rain and big swells. Being on night watch last night was
like being on the Space Mountain attraction at Disneyland. Flying through the
dark of night shaking and jerking around with the twists of the sea and
howling of the wind. With reefed sails we still managed to sail over 155 nm in
the last 24 hours. The weatherman reports more of the same for tonight too
unfortunately but hopefully it will improve over the next 24 hours.
We have about 610 nm left to St. Lucia. Our current
heading is 253 T degrees and are sailing speed is about 7 knots. The wind is
blowing at 13 knots but we are getting ready to sail into a massive squall so
things are got to get bumpy and wet real quick.
Still no luck with the fish :(
Attached are a few pictures from today. More
squalls shots (you must be getting sick of these by now) plus dolphins
and plus hanging out onboard. I asked the boys to share some of their impressions
from the trip so far for today's blog:
Spencer wrote:
Today is the 13th day at sea. It is strange to
think that it is almost two weeks since we have seen both land and another human
being other than Vic, Dad, Uncle J, and Elliott. Everything is good none the
less. The days kind of start to blend together now and it is tough to recall
what we did on each day. The main way to distinguish between days seems to be
what we ate for dinner. (which tonight is pasta)
The weather situation is slowly improving and we
are apparently heading to less squallish seas so we'll hopefully be able to fly
the parasailor again.
We saw some more dolphins today and Dad actually fed a flying fish that had landed on our deck to one of them. I can safely say that I am now well adjusted to life at sea and feel confident in being able to cope with any oceanic challenges that we may encounter. There doesn't seem to be too much more to report as nothing terribly new or exciting has really happened. Although it's better that not too much has happened then something bad happening as many other boats in the ARC are suffering broken booms and demastings so I'm definitely grateful we're not in any situation like that. Elliott wrote:
LIfe onboard the boat is very different
from being on land. For one, on land you don't get thrown around while
taking a shower and you don't fall out of bed as much. I still haven't gotten
over the sea sickness yet although it has gotten a lot better. This trip has
been great so far and I hope nothing happens to use like it is happening to
other participants of the ARC. One part I enjoy is night watch with my brother
Spencer and my uncle Jayson. Every night we have hot chocolate and some cookies
and just hang out. A other part enjoy is playing hang man, Texas hold em, Uno
and other games with every one.
More tomorrow.
Enjoy,
Mark and the crew of California Blue
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