Saturday February 17th, 4:30 P.M. EST
\nPosition: N 12 08 43
\n W74 54 36<\/p>\n
It is now day 3 of our passage from Bonaire to the San Blas
\nIslands. We continue to be very fortunate with both wind and
\nseas – it is quite literally “smooth sailing”. We have had
\nwinds from the east north-east somewhere in the 14 to 20 nm per
\nhour range – making for a very comfortable sail. We had huge
\nbunches of flying fish hopping out of the water all morning and
\nsailing past us – big groups of 10 to 30 fish at a time – all
\nsilvery and smooth. Some of them are out of the water for a
\nhundred feet or more, sometimes turning directions in
\nmid-flight. One of them took a left just in front of the forward
\nsail and crashed into it. He must have been as surprised as we
\nwere. Just as we were getting bored of them, a fantastic school
\nof dolphins appeared at the side of the boat and they dove and
\njumped all around us for about a half an hour. They must send
\nout calls to their friends when they find a boat to follow for
\nas we watched them playing in the waves around us, we could see
\nmany of them cruising up to the boat from way behind – coming at
\nsuch a fast speed it was startling. Claus had been wanting to
\nsee dolphins so we were all very glad that they visited us. We
\nhope we will see more of them before the trip is over. There is
\nlots of shade in the cockpit from about 11:00 a.m. onwards so we
\nare all comfortable. It is a good idea to stay out of the
\ndirect sun here as it is incredibly intense starting from about
\n8:00 a.m. We have had two nights at sea so far, both of them
\nmoonless, which I thought would make it quite dark. Guess I was
\nwrong, as the stars are so intensely bright that we have lots of
\nlight at sea. The stars have really been amazing – the whole
\nmilky way is visible – and we watch the big dipper rise out of
\nthe horizon behind us as the night progresses. We saw a tiny
\nsliver of moon yesterday, just before the sun rose.
\nLots of boiled eggs, chicken, Dutch cheese, fruit and chocolate
\nto eat on board – plus good old diet Coke and lots of water.
\nClaus is a welcome addition to our trip – he balances out the
\nPitt sleeping equation, as he doesn’t seem to need any sleep,
\nand Mark and I can never seem to get enough sleep.
\nL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday February 17th, 4:30 P.M. EST Position: N 12 08 43 W74 54 36 It is now day 3 of our passage from Bonaire to the San Blas Islands. We continue to be very fortunate with both wind and seas – it is quite literally “smooth sailing”. We have had winds from the east north-east … <\/p>\n