May 17

No sooner had Chantal taught us the word "rien" (nothing) when we looked at the radar and there was something.  Now we need the word for something.  We think the blip on the radar was a big ship, 15 miles away,  going to the Panama Canal. It was too far away for us to see it with our eyes. And then there was the little fishing boat with orange lights on the horizon that turned out to be the rising moon. It did NOT show up on the radar.  Lots of to-do Wednesday with wing and wing, whisker pole, back to broad reach, Barry discovering loose bolts holding the Monitor together and to the boat causing him to climb OUT of the boat again to tighten everything  up.  Oh, my.  I think we saw 30 birds yesterday, petrel types, storm petrels and 2 tropic birds.  Thanks for your emails!!

Night Sky App

Before we left California we put the iPhone on Airplane mode to be sure the Night Sky star finder app still worked without an internet or cellular phone connection and, sure enough, it did. We thought it used GPS satellites.  Now, out here, no worky. Ditto iPad. Would you please explain.


Oh, my gosh, I just went up (the companionway into the cockpit) and checked and there was a flock! or petrels fishing. When Barry wakes up he will give you a report of the road kill on the deck. If there are birds, there must be squid or something that draws them.


This email won't get sent for another hour when the propagation is better. Sailmail includes a program which tells how well the radio waves will travel at various times of the day for each land station you might try to reach.


Position :  12 03.28' N, 132 06.64' WSpeed : 4.8 knots,  Course : 220 degree