Another afternoon, evening, and morning goes by, and what do you know, it’s afternoon again! (although VALIS is on California time and we are physically several time zones to the west, so it feels like mid-morning). The wind has calmed a little, but we are still making good time in the right direction. Phil is preparing chicken curry salad for lunch, but after we eat we may put up the asymmetric spinnaker, since the wind direction has shifted aft enough to let us fly this big sail.
In yesterday’s exciting episode of drama and hi-jinks on the high seas, we mentioned the strange floating jellyfish(?) We still have no photos, but did work on many theories — most involving mutant space spores and their inevitable domination of humanity. Given this chilling possibility, we are reluctant to attempt the capture of one of these seemingly innocuous creatures, but John may eventually “volunteer” for this hazardous mission.
Before sunset yesterday, since the wind angle was favorable we put up the staysail, along with the genoa and main. Under “all plain sail” we picked up at least a half-knot, and with the calm seas we were gliding along our planned path very nicely. Soon after this we sighted a freighter to the north of us, heading south-west. As we were heading north-east we remained at some distance until we sailed out of sight. We attempted to hail the ship on our VHF radio, but got no answer. If only we could have called them in time to warn them about the mutant space spores! Now, no doubt, the ship is fully-laden with it’s deadly cargo of spores and once-human zombies, and on-course for a deadly rendevouz in an unsuspecting far-eastern port.
At least the birds seem to be unaffected by this scourge. We have been seeing albatross, floating and flying, and other smaller birds as well. Since we are currently about as far from land as it is possible to be on this planet, it is pretty impressive that they seem so at-home out here.
Last night Davey had the first watch, and soon after midnight, while Paul was below on the radio with the Pacific Cup return fleet, Davey called down “Dolphins!”. We all came up to watch our escort of about six small dolphins playing in our bow-wave, and streaking from port to starboard, then back again. They stayed with us for about an hour, and returned again during Phil’s 7:00AM watch for a while.
We have just finished lunch — another delicious Phil creation — of chicken curry over lettuce, and are planning on having Teriyaki-Mahi-mahi for dinner.
Attached is our google-earth trackfile. There is a mysterious three hour gap in the record. There is no obvious explanation, but Paul is acting kind of funny, and John is muttering something about blood tests.
-VALIS

valis-aug03.kmz