Tuesday, March 24, 2009

From s/v Circadia

12:28 MST Position 21 degrees, 9 minutes N, 111 degrees, 23 minutes W. Total distance traveled: 134 nautical miles

 If you have any reservations about getting started on a long ocean voyage, start from Cabo San Lucas. After two days in the anchorage, awash with the wakes of pangas, glass bottom boats, party cats, jet skis and cruise ships; after two nights of pounding 80's club music from the beach, we were happy to leave.

One other boat, (from New Zealand) took off a half an hour before us. Apparently there are other boats as well on the crossing, but it looks pretty empty out here.

Within twenty minutes of leaving the pinnacles of the Cape behind us, we had 20 knots of beam wind, and big, confused seas. Everyone skipped dinner. Out here, with less shipping, night watches are a little more relaxed than coming down the west coast. One of the two people on watch can usually doze, though sleeping on deck is like sleeping on minimalist furniture, or in an airport.

The sky was clear. Once in a while a falling star would shoot through the Milky Way. The water, mostlty rinsed of plankton, has turned swimming pool blue. But last night we passed through a school of squid so dense we could smell it.

1 comment:

Colene said...

I'm so happy that you can beam up from the boat. I love the image of the clear, night sky, the Milky Way and falling star. And my lack of desire to ever go to Cabo has been reinforced. Thanks!