Report from VALIS – Sept 5

As of 2:00 PM PDT, VALIS was at latitude 39deg 47min north, longitude 137deg 02min west, and sailing due east at a speed of 8.2 knots (over the ground). Winds are from the southwest at 21 knots. We are sailing under reefed main, full jib and stays’l.

The weather has been generally overcast since yesterday (Thursday), with some light rain throughout the night. This morning we had a few hours of clear skies overhead, but now we have 100% cloud cover. The temperature is comfortable, but is definitely getting cooler.

Aside from minor adjustments to our sail trim and Monitor windvane as the wind rises and falls, there hasn’t been much to do over the past couple of days. We read and nap, and the major events of the day are:
* Morning boat inspection
* Morning email call
* Breakfast (Daniel made pancakes this morning)
* Lunch or snacks
* Dinner (Last night Jim made a tasty chicken stew that stuck to out ribs — and to the plates, and pots, and anything else it touched).
* 8:30 PM Pacific Seafarer’s Net (keeping track of the other boats in our area, and trying to impress everybody with our boatspeed)
* Evening Video Presentation (we’ve recently watched, in reverse order: Mad Max, Ghostbusters, Reservoir Dogs.)

We haven’t seen any ships for a few days, but we keep looking. The night watches are still starting at 9:00 PM, but we will be shifting to 8:00 PM tonight or tomorrow, to keep in synch with local sunset. Every watch has it’s own characteristic, but the general opinion is that the first (9-12 midnight) and last (6-9 AM) are the favorites. Here are some comments from Jim about the last watch:
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I’m currently on one of my favorite watches, sunrise watch 6am to 9am PDT. Although there is 100% cloud cover this morning, it is still wonderful watching the sky brighten and come alive. Off to the east is about 1 inch of pinkish-grey light peering out under the dark grey overcast clouds. Now, its 2 inches and a golden pink. Grey overcast on the rest of the horizon with light blues appearing in spots as the entire sky slowly lightens and lightens until it eventually completely brightens. At sea, every sunrise and for that matter every sunset is new experience of seeing different ways nature arranges the colors and lighting for each show.
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Best wishes from the crew of the VALIS
Daniel, Jim, Paul, Paul