Location: 24° 21 S, 33° 48 W
Sunday 12:00, 08.06.2006

The Schooner Maggie B was at 24° 21 S, 33° 48 W at noon on Sunday, 08.06.2006. We have gone 786 miles so far. Tristan da Cunha is 1345 NM and Cape Town is 2800 NM.

Today is splendid. I know that I may run out of adjectives, having used “idyllic” yesterday. But today is different from yesterday. The swells of yesterday have organized into long 8-12 foot South Atlantic rollers, that slip easily under us every twelve seconds or so. The white caps are more general, the Beaufort scale having eased up from three to four, and the wind waves are more sharp and angular. It is cooler, with the water now at 70 degrees from a tepid 83 in Barbados. More hatches are dogged down, the Reep’s lashing rechecked, t-shirts have given way to polypro, favorite blankets are searched out from the linen locker and knives are resharpened.

We have started our turn to the east. At noon the wind was 080M at 10-14, now at 1500 it is 060 at 15. Sheets have eased more. At noon we were doing 7.8 knots, at 1500 we are up to 9.0. We are in the high, with the pressure up to 1021, but need to make a bit more Southing to keep the coming NW’erly as long as possible.

Greater Shearwaters with their four foot wingspan have joined us, hopefully preparing us for Albatrosses, if we are so lucky as to see one. Last night I ran a surface krill troll, picking up some tiny fish as well as red, orange and white tiny shrimp. Also many fish eggs. Tonight I will use longer line and some weight to see what wonders are lower down.

Last night’s disaster was spilling Coke onto the computer. This morning I switched to the backup, which, as always was not very backed-up. Max has made a keyboard transplant and is working to de-Cokify the bad one.

All is well.