Why isn’t this man smiling?
Day 7
Why doesn’t this beautiful rainbow bring a smile to Randall?
Life seemed good last night, at least for a few moments. We had just finished our dinner (Randall made pasta with a tomato veggie sauce with fake meat) and the wind was blowing albeit lightly. Then the wind speed picked up (good) but it was blowing for the “wrong” reasons. We were heading into a bunch of squalls defined as micro-storms within a larger weather system. This means unpredictable wind and rain, like going from a warm dry eight knots of wind into a mini-hurricane that could last for a minute or two and blow 40 knots with pounding rain. If you do not immediately reduce your sail coverage, they can be blown out and destroyed within seconds. That’s why there can be a beautiful rainbow in one corner of the horizon (signifying that the storm has passed), while just ahead lies a dark cloud system that you (we) are about to pass under with unpredictable consequences. The bottom line is that we passed through unscathed and were able to ride the mini-pressure system for the rest of the night. This made the boat rock and roll all night as we sailed through. All well and good except that a propane canister in the forward locker came loose and “clanged” each time we rolled over a wave (think 5 waves a minute X 480 minutes = 2,400 clangs until we could fix it the next morning. “We” actually means Randall, but the clanging, unfortunately, kept him up too as well as a loose can of beans under his bunk.
So, guess what? The wind died again! We would have been upset if it were not for the extreme beauty of this part of the North Pacific and the unusual scenery that comes into view. First, take a peek at this school of nine Dorado fish (also known as Mahi Mahi https://www.centralamericafishing.com/meet-the-fish/dorado-fish that Randall spotted swimming beside our stalled boat. These guys just swam by just to check us out. Super curious and colorful and yes, some of the best-eating creatures to swim in any water. It could have been fun to pull one out for dinner but it would have ruined the moment of two species who come together in the middle of nowhere just to sniff each other out.
Yuck! Definitely not fan mail from some flounders
OK, here is a not-so-fun object we spotted…float-sum. Randall uses the density (amount) of float-sum to gauge the confluence of currents that tend to amalgamate this floating trash. If you look at the diagram of this link you can see that we are actually not so far away (less than 500 miles?) from the great North Pacific garbage patch https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-pacific-garbage-patch/. Before we left, we thought about heading to the patch just to check it out. Maybe next time! But Randall explained that as awful and ugly as the trash is that floats in the ocean, each and every piece is covered with algae or seaweed and supports its own little microenvironment that can include fish or micro-organisms.
LET’S TALK NAVIGATION - YES THIS IS PAINFUL
Check out our navigating skills (picture above). We find ourselves squarely in the middle of a mini-high-pressure system! Wind all over the place except where we are. No, we did not do this on purpose! It is so fascinating, that we chart the forecast several times per day on two separate forecasting systems, yet here we lay. So we are going to continue our run west with the hope that in X hundred miles we will hit the northerlies. The forecast promises us that in a day or so the wind will once again carry us.
ENJOYING LAKE PACIFIC - SO GOODBY FOR NOW
In the meantime, please know that in the middle of this vast, fierce ocean in which we sit and boob around, it can sometimes be flat, calm, still, and peaceful. We will take in and enjoy this moment.