Spinnaker. Thats all I can say, up at first light, was still light winds, 12-14 kts, exchanged all the normal canvas for one spinnaker. So we put away the main sail, rolled up the jib, and deployed an asymetrical spinnaker. It is huge.

We have a 70 foot mast, and the A-kite goes all the way to the top and can touch the water if it wasn’t full of air. The length of the bottom of the triangle is longer than the length of the boat. With the almost following seas we are rocking and rolling right along, we have covered 174 miles since yesterdays update. With wind gusts into the low 20s we have seen boat speed of up to 14kts and pretty much on course.

Cereal for breakfast while the spinnaker was getting used to its new spot pulling the boat forward.

We tried to use the SSB to call one of Captain Ron’s buddies but were not successful. Could hear some auto part dealers from Oklahoma swapping car parts tho. I’m going to have to get a HAM license to understand all the features of the SSB.

Sandwich for lunch snack on a nice sunny after noon. Shorts were attire all day, little sun burn.

I took my day watch on the lido deck, took one of the remote auto pilots to the foredeck and chilled in the shadow of the spinnaker on the nets while on watch. The kaos of the stern of the boat sounds rushing through the water are missing when on the front of the boat on a run. At 9 kts of boat speed, I think we could surf the double up wake that the hulls make behind the boat, just like on Lake Austin, except turning around to get a fallen surfer would take quite some time.

Pork chops, garlic gouda mashed potatoes and a salad Missy would be almost proud of for dinner. Would have made the required 7 elements to the salad, but the cilantro had seen better days.

Christine mentioned that it would be nice to see land again, but then laughed as she said I guess that is still several days away.

The following seas and wind from behind are giving us a quick run, and the motion is like the Ab Chair on TV. A little swing to the left, swing to the right as the quartering waves catch and pass us and the wind pulls us back on course.

I slept all the way till my 1am shift as I guess I was tired, getting up early to set the spinnaker, and Christine woke me to jibe the sails during her shift last night. So she was tired today as well. The crew is still in good spirits especially since we have found some favorable winds.

Course over ground: 276 Speed over ground: 8.7kn Total miles through water: 478 Miles to destination: 1189 kn (as a crow).

Its been 2 weeks and we still have fresh fruit on board. Not much left at the moment, a couple oranges and grapefruit. I’ll be gone tomorrow, if not tonight on watch.

Christine got all excited and made breakfast. Old fashioned Flap-Jacks, not the bisquik you are used to, but Flap Jacks. There is a difference, the marketing materials on the Flap Jack box certainly said so. We did forget syrup at the store so, honey and marmalade worked perfectly to top the top notch flap jacks!

The wind is clocking around behind us this morning, so it was light air, 10kt, and almost holding steady @ 120 degrees behind us. We tried to fly the Asymmetrical spinnaker, the A-Kite. It takes about 15 mins to get all hooked up and ready to hoist. Raised it up, and it filled up just fine behind the full main sail. Couple of tweaks and we were floating along, then as expected the big kite scared the wind away, and it dropped to 5kt. So another 20 mins to pack it all backup and wait for more consistent wind.

Spectacular day, really flat ocean, cool breeze, not too humid. Aired out the boat by opening the almost all the hatches, and motor sailed along to keep the 5kt toward the destination and promise of trade winds.

Since an engine was running, 2 loads of laundry were done, water tanks topped off (this time the washing didn’t use all the water, we used the delicate setting, not the full on presoak, cycle). The place looked like a double wide trailer park on laundry day with all the laundry clipped to anything that would get sun to air dry the threads.

Christine also took inventory of all the gear on board, and where it is. She organized a few things and separated some that needs to be separated from the boat as well.

Somewhere today we crossed the 1/2 way point or are about to, I haven’t measured it. We celebrated a good day with a few rum n diets to get inspiration for dinner. Course a vodka sprite for Mrs. Christine.

Z-Tejas has nothing on our fish tacos. Fresh tempura Dorado, Fresh home made salsa complete with cilantro, tomatoes, peppers, onions, the whole works. Yummy, Yummy!

Drug lines, but we were really moving too slow to attract the big fish – or at least that is today’s excuse.

Wind has come around to the stern, and we are cruising along, with hopes of a spinnaker run in the morning. We have heard that the ARC boats just a bit south of us are pulling in 10kt boat speeds so hopefully we’ll get some of that tomorrow too, sort of heading a little south to try to hurry that up.

We are also going to try an SSB call with Ron’s buddy on the west coast tuesday @ 0200z and test out this SSB for voice calls, as we haven’t had much luck finding the ARC frequency.

We are thinking we’ll be at least a week late back to work, we’ll start to work on rescheduling our airfare tomorrow.

Crew is well rested and looking forward to the 2nd half of the journey, and of course getting there.

Course over ground: 235 Speed over ground: 5.2 kn Total miles through water: 266 (got reset) Miles to destination: 1363 kn (as a crow).

Night watches on the gulf of Mexico have you watching out for shrimp boats, work boats heading to the rigs, and of course the rigs themselves. This trip, its been about enjoying the stars, looking for the occasional commercial or sailboat out on the horizon or just keeping the boat heading the correct direction and adjusting the sails. Mostly its poking Auto, when there is a wind shift.

Awesome day, woke up a little upset about the miles under the keel since the engines were turned off and late raising of the full sail. After that we have been kicking it all day motor sailing, with one engine at 1400 rpm, just to push us over the wave when the wind dies.

Ham and cheese omelets for breakfast, and just chilled out most of the day as we sailed onward.

After lunch snack quesidilla, motivation got the better of us. Christine had been wanting to do a load of laundry, and with a beautiful sunny day. We tried the washing machine. I worked but sucked out fresh water tank on the starboard side dry as a bone. Doh! Note to self, use the ‘short’ cycle when making your own water, took the better part of the day to replenish the water supply with the watermaker. But all back in business now.

We have been dragging fishing lines behind the boat for thousands of miles with only one Bonita to show for it. That all changed today. First Ron hooked a sweet Dorado (Mahi Mahi) right after I had changed from a small lure to a large one, Doh! I watched him filet up that puppy, now in the freezer. A while later, I hooked another Dorado, a bit bigger I might add, and I cleaned and made steaks from this guy. Guess what we had for dinner. Awesome Mahi Mahi over rice and green beans.

Captain Ron cooked up the delicious meal while I put the Lazy Jacks back together. Christine even really enjoyed the fresh MahiMahi going back for seconds.

I’m starting to think that if Jack wasn’t so lazy Matt wouldn’t have to work to fix them. They really need to be re-done right, instead of scraps of line that are there now.

Another beautiful night tonight, no clouds, lots of stars, almost warm enough to leave the jacket inside. The winds are shifting north, so we are not on the nose. Right now our course has a 30 degree fluctuation between 250 and 280, every so often, with 275 being the direction to the destination. Winds are light at 8-10kt, but with the iron genny (engine) filling in, we are still getting 6kt to the destination. Minimal waves so the sleeping is good.

Crew is still doing well, ready to make better time. Optimistic that the forecast holds and we can fly a spinnaker soon, and at least are doing better than 30 miles we got a few days ago. Out best guess is that we’ll be a week later than planned but that’s still an early guess, we’ll be trying to come up with a plan in a couple of days as what to do about the airfare and tickets during busy season.

Course over ground: 256 Speed over ground: 5.3kn Total miles through water: ugh, reset again,now says 102 Miles to destination: 1508 kn if we were a bird.