Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Salad Nicoise for dinner and fresh-baked scones for breakfast

If you think our lives on board revolve around food, you'd be partly right. But there are so many other things going on simultaneously that food, delicious though it is, often loses priority. At times, email seems to be the most important aspect because not only is it how we hear from friends and relatives (when they write) but also how we get important weather information. Although email is often upstaged by navigation problems; trying to figure out the quickest way to get from here to there with the weather conditions that we have. But, sailing and sail tending will often occupy all our concentration as it's our sole method of propulsion (we carry very little fuel for the distance we're covering). Regardless, the Salad Nicoise was delicious as were the scones.

The winds are much lighter than we'd like. It takes a fair amount of wind pressure to move a 40,000-pound boat through the water at any decent speed. It's a good thing that we've got all the time in the world! Other than the light winds, the temperatures are warm (the water is over 80 degrees but we haven't been swimming yet) and the skies are partly cloudy. The ocean water is a dark blue with about a six-foot swell that can sometimes roll Rutea pretty well.

I've finally got our new autopilot figured out and it's working great, even if it does consume a lot of power. It's a lot more complex than our old one but it has some great features. All the rest of Rutea's systems are working as they should. After spending so many years of coastal cruising, I'm finding this a real treat to be really sailing - without an engine - for over a week now. This is a dream-come-true for me.

I hope you are all doing great.
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At 3/29/2011 5:13 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 12°20.05'N 118°13.92'W

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