POST

Thursday May 17, 2007
Let's say you want to walk across the salon. One second you are walking up hill, the next
second you are walking down hill, the next second your left foot is up hill and your right
foot is down hill and then the feet are reversed. Walking a straight line is impossible.
This is the dreaded corkscrew roll of a vessel in a confused sea. The good news we are not
seasick, even sitting at the chart table computer for long periods is not a problem. The
other good news is we are moving at 9.5 to 10 knots with just the Genoa up, sometimes
hitting 11 knots. Whoo-ha we are in the trades. Just do not try to walk around with a cup
of coffee. We are in fact going too fast; we are not racing anyone but SailDancer, an
Oyster mono hull 60 foot sailing vessel, is a day ahead of us. We drop the engine down to
1500 RPM and Bella Donna hardly slows down. We would shut her down, but we then would have
to turn on the generator. Now we are rolling down the highway, in more ways than one, in
several directions at once.

The temperatures are still nice; the mornings and evenings are cool. Ant came up to the
fly last night for his 9 PM watch in a sweatshirt. However, by the noon hour and early
afternoon it feels tropical, a hint of hot and humid. They say the Marquises are hot,
humid and there are a lot of mosquitoes and nonos, a microscopic bug that consumes flesh
and itches; I think maybe we know them as the same as no see ums. We bought plenty of
insect repellant in Galapagos.

We did not catch any fish today; perhaps we were going too fast. We spent the whole day
between 9.5 and 11 knots. The sea stayed rough with the corkscrew roll, which represents a
240 mile 24 hour day. I don't think we did quite that good after dark; we furled in the
Genoa in 22 knot winds to play it safe dropping out speed under 10 knots.

The highlight of the day was a call from Donna in Tampa, Florida, following her back
surgery. She was already back into her hotel and already had some relief as a result of
the procedure. The satellite phone call was as clear as a bell, even if there was a few
seconds time delay between the beginning of speech and it making to the other person. I
miss everyone so much; it will be good to get home. I bet the kids have grown.

God Bless Bella Donna.