December 18, 2011 Day 2
30 10 N latitude, 77 01 W longitude
255 miles from Myrtle Beach, SC
206 miles to Marsh Harbor, Bahamas

Hello Everybody,

About 0630 this morning Jake and I turned off the engine, and we have been
sailing ever since. The wind has built during the day and at one point
during my watch our SOG was over 10 knots, helped by about a half a knot of
favorable current. The wind is aft so the ride is comfortable, sleeping is
great and the cockpit is comfortable. We haven’t caught any fish today, in
fact we havent’t even had a strike. The reasons are two: we were going too
fast and our lines collected masses of Sargasso weed. We finally just gave
up and
reeled in the lines. You should not, however, feel the least bit sorry for
us. We have had fresh
tuna sashimi for dinner last night and for lunch today. Jake will prepare
more for dinner tonight. It is delicious!

I have learned the details and now can tell you the fishing
contest score: Pete and Jake, aka the geezers or old guys or old men, have
caught 2; Ben and Leo, aka the boys or young pups or thirty-somethings,
have caught 0. Unfortunately Leo has to take credit (or is that blame) for
losing their only hit. He got the fish to the boat, but it got away befoe
he could land it. So the score is Geezers 2, young pups 0, fish 1.

Since I wrote those first paraagraphs the wind has gotten crazy! It
oscillates from 345 to 30 degrees with the wind from 18 to 30 knots. It’s
an adventure to steer, an even greater adventure to make a salad in the
galley as the boat careens from wave to wave. But good! The weather is
warm and the sky is clear. Pete was the only taker for a shower on the back
deck. He is always upbeat and positive, so when he admitted that although
the sea water was lovely and the shower water was hot, it was quite chilly
when the wind hit his wet skin.

Once again I must say goodnight since I have to be up from midnight until
0400.

All the best from the crew of avalanche looking forward to catching fish
again tomorrow, bathing on the back deck, and getting closser to the
Bahamas.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2011 at 7:25 pm and is filed under 2011 Trip South, News!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.