When opportunity knocks….At 0900 we had zephyrs for wind and leftover swells, bright sunshine, air temp just into the 90’s, and water temp of 82.9 degrees. Swim call! We had been motorsailing, so we rolled up the sails, throttled the engine back to neutral with a quick shift into reverse to stop the forward motion, strung a float out on about 30′ of line for holding on, and rigged loops of line for a swim ladder. Leo, of course, had long insisted that there was no way he was going swimming out of sight of land with all those big hungry fish around; so he volunteered as lifeguard and photographer. The rest of us dove right in.

The water was wonderful and so clear you could see the entire bottom of the boat (it looks really clean) and the sun’s rays going deep into the water. At first the boat continued to coast away from us and we had to keep up, but gradually it made a turn and we were surfing toward the boat. From the water it seemed as if the boat was really rolling in the swells, but once back on board we could tell it was nothing like what we had been experiencing.

We were having such a fine time,and encouraging and goading Leo to join us, that finally he did! Leo Bontiff dove into water over 19,000′ deep and lived to tell the story. If you would like to check out exactly where we were swimming go to maps.google.com and search for: 18.85, -61.99. It’s been several years since we’ve had conditions for swim call, and it’s great fun!

We’ve talked to Peter today. He took his finger to his doctor, who thought it was healing very nicely. In fact he wanted to remove the steri-strips to take the stitches out. Peter had to quickly point out that there were no stitches–only steri strips. Fine job by Kim. He can’t use the hand for another week, a definite problem for a carpenter and father of 2 boys! Peter’s doctor reenforced the danger of infection, keeping him on antibiotics for another week, and warning him that if he has any joint pain he should go immediately to an ER (not just to his doctor). (Come on, everyone over 50 who has just been sailing offshore has joint pain. What is that doctor thinking?)

On to the fishing contest: The lines are out. Score currently Peter and Ben 5, Jake & Leo 0, fish 4. (Ben had another bite this morning, but they lost the fish.) Needless to say, Jake and Leo have great expectations. We’ll keep you posted. We’re still brainstorming the flag representing the fish that got away. How about a cartoon fish holding the lure with a raised victory fist, or fish holding person on a lure and raised victory fist. We’re looking for suggestions here.

Yesterday afternoon the winds and seas moderated a very little, but gradually by midnight we were motor sailing and this morning it was calm enough for our swim. During the night we continued to have the threat of squalls, and continued to roll up the sails and start up the engine all night long, but lucky for us it never did rain! The squalls were constant to the left of us and behind us, but dried up before they got to us. We’ve got 58 miles the north end of Barbuda and another 50 into Falmouth Harbour. We expect to get there sometime in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, the crew of avalanche is having the kind of day that makes a trip like this worthwhile: relaxing in the sun, reading, eating, napping and wishing we’d catch a fish. 18 degrees 42 minutes N latitude, 61 degrees 56 minutes W longitude or on maps.google.com 18.70,-61.93.