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Arkouda - Day 12 (or 14?) How time flies



13 36 N 30 25 W

I swear that I counted the days since we left when I sent the blog yesterday. I guess I subtracted the days that we spent in the Verdes. We are sailing, albeit very, very slowly, headed WSW. We are headed south still to try to avoid the even lighter winds predicted for the next few days, and hopefully the adverse (predicted west to east at 14 N) winds. We are still making progress...the true wind is down to 7-8 kts so I guess that I should be thankful for 4-5 kts that we are moving.

We have had quite a number of hitchhikers and stowaways on this adventure. The first were these little green caterpillars that stowed away in the basil and coriander that I planted for fresh herbs. I bought these cute little 3 inch pots at .50 euros each, stuck them in a bowl, and the coriander took off! In less than two or three weeks it was over 18 inches tall, but starting to look a little spotty. The rosemary seemed fine, but the basil was not really growing and had all these half eaten leaves. We searched and searched--they were tiny little guys that hid under the leaves. We got them all of the basil, the next day there were more half eaten leaves. It took a really long time to spot them in the coriander, so I finally chopped it back to the ground. We will see if any of them survive.

The most annoying hitchhikers are the flying fish. We have a really tall freeboard, and our deck is at least 8 feet off the water. These fish are either being chased by predators, or think that we are the predator, and leap to escape being eaten only to land on the deck. On even flew into the cockpit. Every morning we make our rounds, check the lines for chafe, the rigging, and peel these poor little desiccated bodies off the gelcoat and out of sail bag. They are not the little flying fish, these are quite big!

Today we had our 3rd species, a little egret. He landed first on the dingy, than settled for awhile on the sugar scoop, and made himself at home on the boom. I named him Fred. I am sure that when I start to hose the boat off at the end of journey I will have another name for him!

The storms that have been affecting the US have definitely affected the winds here as well. We are expecting no wind for the next 3 days or so. Our food stores are holding out amazingly well--the only thing that has gone off are the unrefrigerated carrots. I am glad I made room for a bag in the fridge! We have oranges, water, fuel, sunshine and each other. Life is good!

Cynthia


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