Wednesday May 21, 2008 Gulf of Mexico. Lat 27° 18.02’ N, Long 85° 50.24’ W

Good progress yesterday as we averaged 6 knots towards our destination which, at the present time is a point just north of Key West, but last night the wind dropped some. Just before dark we made the decision to change headsails and Janet took on the task, taking down the #2 genoa and bagging it, hanking on the #1 and then raising it. It helped some and we sailed that way all night in light but fairly steady winds from the Southwest. These have continued this morning and we are averaging just over 4 knots at the moment.

It is interesting how I find my mood changing so far on this trip. As we first set out from Galveston I was apprehensive about heading offshore despite having done this many times before. Again I experienced a tension in my stomach when we headed out the Gulfport channel on Monday. I guess it is a fear of the unknown; of what could happen. Once we had dealt with our first sail change I began to relax and then by yesterday I was feeling pretty good apart from a queasiness (the initial symptom of seasickness) which I experienced if I spent too long below decks. By this morning, as the Sun rose I remembered why I love this life. We were sailing along in less than one foot seas, the ocean was turquoise and I felt ready for anything. Then a pod of dophins came by and stayed a while swimming and spouting on both sides of the boat.

As I write this, Janet is taking a nap, something we both do during the day to catch up on lost sleep during night watches. We don’t know where yet we will make landfall in Florida but our present plans are to take the ICW from north of Key West and then exit in to the Hawk Channel at Long Key. It should save us quite a distance as opposed to rounding Key West. Then, as long as all goes well, we will put in somewhere on the East Florida Coast. I have just started looking at where this could be today.

Jeremy

I got up from my nap and listened to the NOAA weather from the Coast Guard on the SSB radio. We are getting into our usual offshore routine. I too had been a little anxious about how it would be offshore, but I always do that on every voyage. After the first night I feel a lot better. We’re trying a night watch system of me from 2000 to 2300, Jeremy 2300 to 0200, me 0200 to 0500 and Jeremy 0500 to 0800. We find it best to keep a formal watch at night so we each are assured of getting the sleep we need (well sort of). During the day we always have someone in the cockpit but not a regular schedule. Our windvane Aries steering system is a dream: otherwise we would have to be steering all the time. It only works well if you trim your sails correctly, so it is a good teacher. At night we always wear our safety harness and clip on our tethers to padeyes in the cockpit before we leave the cabin and in the daytime we clip on to jacklines along the deck before we leave the cockpit or in any bad weather even while in the cockpit. We’re using our paper charts offshore to save battery power and will turn on the chartplotter again when close to land. There’s almost nothing on the chart out here anyway and we have only seen 2 ships in 2 days. Last night the moon was so bright I was able to work on the last heavy wool sock I’m knitting to wear under seaboots. Even in May in the Gulf, we’re wearing watch caps and jackets at night!

I miss everyone at home.

Janet