We seem to have developed sympathetic cases of mal du mer, now reported by 75% of the crew. When the lead sufferer feels poorly, so do the others and the opposite is true when the first is feeling better. Hopefully today will be the turning point as far as everyone on board feeling comfortable.
So far the only fish we have caught are of the flying variety, so anxious to join us that they leap up onto the boat in the early morning hours. We plan to complete the new deck wash system today so that when we do catch mahi-mahi or tuna, we will be well equipped for cleaning our catch.
The girls put in a fair amount of time on schoolwork yesterday although they are likely still behind their shore-based classmates as far as amount of learning since Christmas break. They have completed the drafts of their first at-sea report for their classes but they keep thinking of things to include. We hope to convince them that more frequent reports to their classmates will make the job easier.
Last night was quite busy for the lone crewmember standing watch: a constant flow of small squalls passing through (fortunately the largest of which just missed us) along with wind shifts requiring sail adjustments and shipping traffic. We had an encounter with a large oil tanker bound for Venezuela: the AIS system first detected the ship approx 25 miles away and predicted a crossing clearance of only 97 ft in 1 1/2 hours! We expected that projection to change as time went on, but the projection was fairly constant that we would only miss the ship by a few hundred feet. We contacted the ship by radio (the ship's name is one of the bits of information which the system provides) and asked them to alter course to ensure a safe passage. The crewman on watch spoke very good English, seemed to have an Indian accent, but hadn't noticed our signal. He promptly obliged by making a 10 degree course change to port and we passed with about one mile between us. The lesson to be learned from this being that while all of these safety systems are great to have, they are frequently not monitored and it is important to be proactive in contacting other vessels to confirm our presence.
The wind has shifted to the E-SE as predicted and we will have to jibe later in the day. When we send this email via Iridium we expect to receive today's updated weather forecast and will adjust our sailing plans accordingly. We continue to make good progress in catching up with the fleet and expect to join them in the San Blas Islands on Monday or Tuesday. All ship systems continue to operate smoothly, we were even able to use our new generator yesterday for the first time to recharge our batteries.
BRIZO Crew