agility @ sea

Jerri:

Pam, thanks for the info on the meteor shower. I feel grateful to be able to observe it on two clear, temperate nights out in the Atlantic! A nice way to wind down the passage.

Marybeth, comments are fine, but we can’t reply directly to them when we’re posting via satellite phone. We send our posts over email and don’t log directly into the site.
As far as food goes, I’m planning on a fish sandwich and a rum beverage for lunch, but who knows. I think curry is big in Grenada so I may end up with something a little spicier! Maybe two rum beverages. We’re always alcohol free on the passages and it hasn’t been that big of a hardship (ha), but a local sailor type beverage seems appropriate upon landfall and then I’ll sleep for 14 hours!
I’ve showered every day, but in cold water. We get our energy from solar, wind and water power. Having the big sail out blocks some of the solar, it’s been overcast at times, and with slower sailing we don’t generate as much water or wind power. We can supplement the power by charging the batteries by running the engines so we’ve been doing that, but with the one engine down, it’s been more complicated than normal. Hence the cold water. We can make water from the sea water, but that takes energy too so we’ve tried to be relatively conservative with the usage. Saving the energy for keeping all of our systems up and running (do NOT want to lose that autopilot or have electronic charts go down), plus watching Mad Men on the larger TV screen takes up a fair amount of energy. Ha.

Denny, I look forward to picking up some local spices. Growing up, we always made Tom and Jerry’s for Christmas and nutmeg is an important ingredient. May have to revisit that this year, although it’s a hot beverage so maybe nutmeg ice cream will be more appropriate.

Mark, I’ve come to the conclusion that getting up in the middle of the night never gets easy, but remember the sweet sleep of the dead the first night in the harbor? I’m looking forward to that! Wish you and Dee were waiting for us in Grenada.

The wind is dying as I’m typing. True wind down to 4 knots for a second there! Our eta went from 30 hours to 44! Let’s hope it’s temporary because Tim and I will be a sad team if we’re out for an extra night.

My watch has a time of 1:21, the computer says 3:21 and the chart plotter is at 2:21. Hopefully we’ll sync them tomorrow and go for the full time change adjustment.

Our two daughters (solo sans significant others) and my mom will join us on the 26th for a late Christmas/boxing day celebration. We haven’t quite figured out what we’ll do for the week, but I’m sure it will be fun!

This is sort of a disjointed post. Wanted to answer questions and am only semi-awake at this point. Time for some Earl Grey and star observation.

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