Location 36° 02S, 120° 05W
Sunday 10.28.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 36° 02S, 120° 05W at noon on October 28th. We are back under all plain sail, slipping along at 5.0 knots in 8.0 knots of wind on our beam. We have a series of complex mid-level overcast clouds with occasional light rain. The barometer is just barely beginning to fall from a high of 1020 millibars. The waves are relatively flat with just a long period SW swell to give definition to the wide waters.

We have come 2751 NM from Rangiroa and have 2179 to go to Puerto Montt.

Today was “Clean the Boat” day and Robert showed off his Beginner’s Luck by pulling “Head and Shower” out of the hat. We also started securing for a blow, putting on our extra baffles to help secure the ventilation system, installing the heavy windows on the aft side of the pilot house and tightening up all deck equipment’s lashings, especially Reep’s. We practiced setting “Kathy,” our storm main staysail between the main and the fore masts.

We are beginning to see albatross and petrels. My favorite, the Pintado Petrel, showed up yesterday. We haven’t been able to ID the albatrosses because as soon as they see Robert’s camera with the 300 mm lens, they take off for Antarctica.

All is well.

Location 34° 15S, 125° 28W
Saturday 10.27.2007

The Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on October 27th was 35° 11S 122° 49W. We were motorsailing, or mostly motoring, at 6.2 knots along the Great Circle line to Puerto Montt. The wind was 290 degrees at 8 knots, or pretty much dead astern. There is still a long swell from the SW and the sky is now overcast with mid-altitude clouds.

We have come 2609 NM from Rangiroa and have 2321 NM to go to Chile.

We are definitely getting into the Southern Ocean. The water temperature is now down to 62 F (17 C), where it was 82 F (27C) in Rangiroa. Finally we are seeing some birds — petrels and albatross.

Last night there was a big ring around the almost-full moon. It was “three fists” wide, meaning that the weather was three days away. It is strange that we are using pre-industrial weather forecasting (”fists away” and wind direction) with Seventeenth Century technology (the barometer) with satellite analysis, to gauge our weather and the prospects.

I had a “waking dream” yesterday that I was in a big kitchen or bar and had a huge pile of limes that I was squeezing in a sparkling juicer. (I don’t remember seeing any rum or tequila — too bad). When I woke up I took it as a direct signal from my body and went and make limeade for all hands. No scurvy on the Maggie B!

By the weather charts, it looks as if we have maybe one more day of motoring and then this front will catch up with us and we will have all the wind we should want, which will blow us most of the way to Chile. We are ready for it. We ran our first, little, tank dry this morning — meaning we have used 120 gallons and have 200 remaining, with an additional 10 in jerry cans. It appears we are getting about 5-6 NM per gallon, so we should have at least 1000 NM of steaming remaining, plus the emergency 50 NM. Should be fine.

All is well.