Passage Update

Ahoy from the sea.

Finally getting some good radio propagation- should have position updates on Shiptrak.org now (see link on blog homepage). Sorry for the delay- more on how ham radio is awesome but finicky and speciifcs about how I finally got my no-Pactor-modem rig to connect to email-radio servers some other time.

Here's us right now:

25 April 2012; 0200 Z (same as GMT, same as UTC)

Position: 11 deg. 47.3' N; 121 deg. 24.6' W
Course: 249 deg True
Speed: 6.6 knots
Wind: 18 knots NE
Swell: 2.5 m NE
Barometer: 1011 mb
Temperature: 80 F

We are all quite well. We've sort of gotten into our respective routines and sort of quietly go about our days in our tiny, constantly-moving world. We operate on Greenwhich Mean Time, so hours of day and position of sun don't really line up like we're used to. That and the absence of land for more than a week and we're sort of in a weird suspended existence. Time and space are pretty homogenous. You're either on watch or you're not. The sun is either up or it's down. At 0200Z we check in on the pacific puddle jump radio net. Those are basically the only landmarks in the day. Other than that, we eat when hungry, sleep when tired, read, do chores, and, of course, look. Lots of looking.

Fishing has been okay. Early on, we caught three yellowfin tuna (small ones- 10-15 lbs each) and a sizable Pacific crevalle jack. The latter was not so tasty, but the tunny were, as always, fantastic. Today we caught a very young mako shark, which we threw back, and later the tiniest mahi-mahi of all time. It weighed not five pounds, measured maybe 15 inches length. It was a beautiful fish, but we were a bit dissapointed to have our first dolphin be an infant. We would have thrown him back but, evidently, when I pulled hard on the rod to set the hook, it sort of set through his face. Incidentally, plenty for one good meal. Harvested some shrimp as well a few days ago- more on that when I can post pictures. Squid fly onto the deck daily. Starting to get flying fish on the deck too.

The first few days were a bit slow, but we picked up the tradewinds Saturday evening (Day 8) and have been making excellent headway since. The water and sky are beautiful out here. Still seeing some boobies and the occasional gull. Spotted first white-tailed tropic bird yesterday. Lying in our berths last night, we could hear high-pitched dolphin chatter as a group swam alongside Ardea. It was sort of surreal. We've got six days in a row now with more than 100 miles covered, and we finally had to reef, so we're hoping we'll make up lost time. With little else to do, we spend a lot of time on nav and tactics- might as well treat it like we're racing.

Ardea is in excellent order and we still have more than 80 gallons of water. We've lost one boat hook, one allen wrench, and one bowl from the galley into davy jones' locker. Should be looking to cross the equator in about ten days. Trying not to think about it too much, but I suppose we've got about 1600 nm to go.

Best wishes to all you landlubbers,

Connor