Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Good Run

No, not the jogging kind with a sweaty t-shirt and expensive shoes, running down the cement sidewalk in Suburbia somewhere. This was the run from an arbitrary point on yesterday's trail to the point on today's trail, 24 hours later. It was right around 160 nautical miles, which for Rutea is pretty good. The best we've ever done is 180 on our crossing from Cabo San Lucas to Hawaii but the documentation for that record is missing so it probably can't be validated.

We're preparing for our Big Jibe, where we'll change course and make a mad dash (such as it is at 6 knots) across the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), hopefully at it's narrowest part. The ITCZ is known for it's lack of wind and it's convection activity - thunderstorms that can be very intense. We could theoretically do that tomorrow.

This morning as we were having breakfast, Ruthie noticed a ship on the horizon. What was really odd about that is not 10 minutes earlier I had taken a report for all ships in the area and the report showed none. All ships are required to be equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) which transmits the ship's name, course, speed, destination, etc. Recreational vessels aren't required to have them but Rutea does. This ship clearly did not. Upon inspection with the binoculars, it appears to be a 'tramp steamer' like might have been seen in an old black and white movie with Humphrey Bogart in it. There was little paint left as rust was the predominant color. No fishing equipment could be seen. Also, it didn't appear to have a direction. It would float in one position for a while and then move a few miles and sit there for a while. Unusual and a little spooky, too.

It's quite warm and humid here. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw many years ago that read: "I know Hell is hot but is it humid?"
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At 3/31/2011 5:15 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 09°16.61'N 122°40.09'W

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