SDolphins Come Play
Return Day 16 8/14/2014 9:30 (120 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
GPS shows only 18 Hours to go at our current rate 7.5 knots. Last evening at the beginning of my watch around 7:00 the wind started to weaken so I fired up the diesel and we have been running it ever since. We must all have our homing instincts in full gear.
Halfway through my morning watch we had a pod of dolphins come play in our wake. It always amazes and thrills me when I experience this. What compels these playful creature to dash around the boat like some carnival ride. They play for a while and then seem to get bored and as quickly as they came they vanish into the grey sea in search of either another adventure or food. Shortly after the first set left another pod came by for a visit. It could have been the same but I doubt it because I was able to watch them arrive off of our starboard bow and they were definitely in a rush to arrive making me think that they were looking for a a new adventure. At the front end of a wave, no further than 50 yards off our starboard beam 7 dolphins simultaneously shot out of the back end of a wave and gracefully entered the water like a choreographed show at SeaWorld. It was well worth the price of admission.
That is all for now, it is extremely difficult to write while trying to balance against the nav station at a 20 degree list while falling off 6 foot waves. This is SeaWorld and Six Flags all rolled into one!
Synoptic Winds
Return Day 14 8/12/2014 14:00 (250 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
Shortly after my last post yesterday after 5:00 P.M. they turned the engine off and it has been off ever since. We have had sustained winds of 15 with occasional gusts to 20 plus. The seas are about the same but shorter in duration so more frequent resulting in a bumpier ride. Just at the end of my shift thee winds clocked about 40 degrees and increased in intensity to sustained over 20. Juan wonders why do all of these changes in conditions seem to happen right at shift changes. We got Nico up and David, Nico and I depowered the boat as best we could without changing sails This is done by flatting the sails which requires all the lines other than the sheets to be tightened.
This increase of wind is a result of the strengthening synoptic winds as we get closer to the coast. I am no weather expert but I have made an asserted effort to learn as much as I can, not just for this adventure but more importantly for when Lindi and I are going cruising. My understanding is that the synoptic winds, that we are currently in, are the result of the compression effect of the easterly winds coming off the north edge of the Pacific High. As they circle clockwise to the south, they are compressed by the mountains along the Mendocino coast north of San Francisco. Without the land mass the winds clocking out of the north would spread out just as they do on for the points of the compass around the High which we have been experiencing as fairly light. Since the winds are being compressed there is a ventura effect just like when you restrict the flow of water there a spray nozzle at the end of a hose, it speeds up. The most resent downloaded weather files shows the wind building slightly for the next 120 miles, so over the next 24 hours, then easing off. Looks like we will have an E-Ticket ride for the next day then the winds should abate some resulting in an easy sail into San Francisco Bay. At least that is Juan’s guess and he is sticking with it.
Everything is still good aboard Avion. We should have a new distance record at the end of the day, my guess is 164 miles which will put us close to 200 NM from Golden Gate. Time to get some sleep, I think I will need it for the wild ride tonight.
Well the wind is back and the motor is finally off!! With 15-20 knots of we don’t need the extra push of the engine and the sailing is fun so we are back to hand steering. At this point we are only a couple of days out and things are starting to look like home. The wind is up, the water is cold and grey and the sky is overcast most of the time with a bit of mist mixed in to the spray to make sure our foulies are still waterproof. Oh yeah we are all wearing our foulies on deck because it wouldn’t feel like home without covering every square inch of my body before going on deck. While to most people all those things sound pretty miserable, I love it. To me it just feels like home and means we are getting close. A bitter sweet feeling of knowing this adventure is coming to a close which and excitement to get back to dry stable land and my friends and family. Already planing the next adventure in my head. Until then keeping warm and dry and moving fast are the priorities
Nico
Finalment le vent est revenu et on a couper le motor!! On a 15-20 knoeuds de vent et on n’as plus besoin de l’aide du motor, on a etaint l’autopilot comme on s’amuse a barrer. La on est a plus que quelques jours de San Francisco et je commence a reconnaitre. Le vent est monter, l’eau est froid, le ciel est gris et et la brume et les eclabouse nous rassurre que nos cires sont bien etanche. Bein sur le plus on se raproach de notre destanation on se rapell que on doit se couvrir entirement avant de monter sur le pont. Pour la plus part des gens ce semblerais miserable mais moi j’adore ca. Pour moi ca me rapelle chez moi et ca veut dire que on s’approche. C’est un sentiment confilt comme ca veut dire que cette aventure se termine mais je vais retrouver le terre sec et solid et ma famille et mes amis. Je pense deja au procain aventure. mais jusque a la les priorites sont de garder chaud rester sec et d’avancer.
Nico
A few old friends who followed this blog during the race have called to tell me they read every word, and found it fascinating. During the week before the race, Jon and I coordinated to set up this blog on WordPress. We both wanted to write about the experience of the race. I knew Jon was a good writer, as he can tell a good story, and that talent contributes to his writing. I expected I would write more than I did, but the 3 postings I did make during the race were from the heart.
The role of skipper was very demanding. I focused on the needs of the boat, including the following: make regular entries into the ship’s log, monitor the batteries, fuel and water, download GRIB files (weather prediction files) for navigation purposes over the satellite phone, and then analyze those GRIB files in our routing program, Expedition with my co-navigator, John. In addition, I occasionally got hungry and prepared a meal for the crew, or if it was dark and cold at night, I made tea or coco for everyone before going up on deck. The conditions during the day were more relaxing, and I found I would start to think about a blog posting. But at night, it was more of a challenge to get up, dress and get up on deck. After driving for an hour like a bat out of hell on a wavy surface, I was drained. Sleep came easily; the goal was to get ready to go do it again. My point is that my blog postings came from an insight, an observation, a desire to share, and they flowed easily, but I did not have the as much time to write as I expected. Knowing that everyone was contributing to be blog took the pressure off me. And once we started getting feedback that people were following it, it took on another dimension.
One old friend commented how curious it was that we were in a race a thousand miles offshore, and asked how did we make regular postings to a blog? We made the blog posting using email. Our primary connection to the Internet was the Iridium satellite phone, which provided voice, SMS text messaging and data transfer capacity. I have an account with Sailmail, which is an email service for sailors and cruisers, that compresses and encrypts emails and strips off attachments, so the email does not waste precious sat-phone minutes. I configured the blog up to receive emails with special tags, to indicate who wrote it, the date and topic, and to force publish it immediately. The resulting process of writing a blog was pretty easy; just sit down and write an email that tells a story, and send it to the secret address.
Now that Avion is less than 400 miles away from San Francisco, I must clarify to everyone that I am the owner, but not currently the skipper. I am back on land, and providing daily support, but the return delivery skipper is David. He has 4 other crew with him, Nico, Jon/Juan, Lindi, and Angie. David did a great job preparing Avion for the delivery while the boat was in Kaneohe Bay, and also during the delivery in his role as skipper. Avion is about to return safe and sound, with extra fuel and water. I am really proud of everyone involved for the extra effort of making the complete round trip.
This blog has been a rich experience. We have had almost 4,000 site visits since starting it. I might keep this blog going to provide a forum for ongoing discussion, analysis of the race, and a place to post pictures. It can also be a place to follow Avion’s new adventures in the coming years. For now, I just want to thank the readers, our families and friends. Thanks for your interest, and stay tuned for more. Tom
We Have Wind
Return Day 13 8/12/2014 17:00 (401 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
We have punched through the Pacific High and are now on its eastern edge. With the clockwise movement of wind around the High we are getting its north/northwest vector resulting in a port tack with 15 knots of wind. Since we have plenty of fuel we are motor sailing doing 8 knots which means we are probably gaining about 1 extra knot with the motor. That doesn’t sound like much but when you factor 70 hours into the equation we should be able to gain an extra 35 miles; equivalent to 6 or more hours of sailing. Besides the increased speed, the motor allows us to run the autopilot without concerns of draining the batteries. The seas are 5 to 6 foot wide swells out of the north/northwest with 1 foot wind chop across our beam. Though not a terribly comfortable ride it is much better than the close hauled course we were running the first week of the return. My arms are not nearly as tired and my fatigue factor is minimal.
We are all doing well and having a grand time. The full moon the last couple of nights has been spectacular allowing for enough light to actually watch out for nets during the night. There has been enough interesting cloud cover to allow the sunrises, sunsets, moon rises and moon sets to be fabulous photo opportunities.
At our current rate of speed the GPS puts us home sometime Friday morning but there are lots of variables that can change that so we will keep you posted. The irony here is that if we arrive before 2:30 P.M. on Friday we would have made the return trip faster than the race! Juan isn’t concerned about that, he just can’t wait for a cold beer out of Antigua’s fridge upon arrival and to see the surprise Lindi says she has for us when we see Antigua’s interior. I guess she made a lot of improvements while I was racing.
Jon
Net Magnet
Return Day 11 8/10/2014 15:00 (716 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
Yes we are still motor sailing and probably will be for a few more days. The engine is doing well with the modification of removing the innards of the thermostat. We are motoring along at just over 6 knots and on occasion when the wind decides to come out to play we can get her all the way up to 6.5 knots but typically not sustained. We are still on track for a Saturday arrival which should make the delivery in less than 17 full days.
Right now we are in what looks like a very big lake on a very calm day. It is flat, blue and calm, very nice conditions for a motorboat ride, too bad we are in a sailboat.
Just as I was preparing to end my shift this morning just before 5 a.m., I was thinking about going below to wake David. However the engine decided to beat me to it by waking David when it stopped immediately. I reached back and turned off the key as David put on his life vest and came up to the cockpit to join Lindi and I. Naturally it was raining! He said he wasn’t going to dive on it in the dark so we raised all of the sails and drifted at maybe 1 knot close to the direction of San Diego with something creating considerable drag below the hull. Since there was nothing for me to do I went to bed because I’m thinking that come daylight there may be some work to be done and it would be good to get some rest, Juan completely agreed.
At 8:00 a.m this morning I heard the engine start, I sighed a bit of a relief, then when I heard it go into gear without shaking the boat apart Juan sighed a huge relief. I climbed out of my bunk and was greeted with hot pancakes by Lindi while David and Nico were in the cockpit drying off. They just finished diving on the prop and cutting away what they described as a huge fishing net with a very large bolt rope that was the reason for the immediate stoppage of the engine. Everything seems to be working properly and we were back on the rhumb line to the Golden Gate Bridge planning to arrive 3 hours later than we had thought yesterday. Juan was strategically planning how he was going to shanghai David and Nico when he goes cruising with Lindi so they can dive on Antigua instead of him if she has similar issues!
Just now as I was preparing to go below right after David came up to relieve me I saw a large net less than 10 feet off our port side and Lindi said that was small compared to the one we hit this morning. It’s good to be vigilant on our watches when we can because Avion is obvious a magnet for large fishing nets. Unfortunately they do not have Japanese glass balls attached.
We did score yesterday on those glass balls. Late afternoon, before sunset, Lindi saw a large green glass ball, about 16 inches in diameter, and hollered to Juan to alter course to fetch it. Great here is an opportunity to prove that Juan can indeed capture the ball as gracefully as Nico. After his third pass with no results Nico came up out of bed and instructed Juan what to do at the helm and was able to scoop it up with his long arms on his first attempt. Juan was right; given enough time and help he could in fact retrieve a ball! Within an hour Angie saw a very small glass ball the size of a baseball that Nico retrieved with no effort, on his first pass no less, Juan was just a little humbled. It is amazing to find something that small in this vastness we call the Pacific Ocean. Jon
Back under way
Well we are off again after diving on the prop and clearing a sizeable net and line off of the prop. Those darn nets are hard to see at night.
On est Reparti
Apres avoir emeler un fillet de pech dan l’helice hier soir on a du attendre le lever du soleil pour plonger sous le bateaux pour couper et demeler. on viens de finir et on est reparti.
Hove to for a bit
Return Day 10
In case anyone is doing an early morning tracker status check, we are hove to at the moment, waiting for dawn to dive on the prop again. We picked up some net and line about 0451 and that stopped the engine. We have a bit of wind, so the boat motion is easy, no swell to speak of, the sky is beautiful, and soon we’ll go for a swim, cut the line away, and move on. Very unlikely there is any issue. I’ll write an update as soon as we have one, with in two hours or so I expect. It may take longer for the email to get through to the blog though, that can take all day sometimes, so look at progress on the tracker in the meantime. – David
Problem Solving
Return Day 9 8/82014 13:00 (979 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
When you plan a delivery such as this you have many options to thin k about. For example; should you follow the rotation of the high so you are constantly in wind or should you cut out a few hundred miles and motor through the high? We gave this extensive consideration weighing the increased distance to the dependency on the engine. We felt that even with motor sailing we could only gain about 2 knots advantage by following the wind not nearly enough advantage to justify the added distance. The downside of this decision is once in the center of the high and the engine has issues we could be stuck for a while waiting for wind or have to alter course to the southeast making a detoured to San Diego. Though I love my brother and sister in law that live there I’m not sure the extra few weeks of sailing would be worth it. I am one that typically hedges on the downside risk; what is the worst that can happen and make decisions that minimizes that from happening. So in this scenario that would typically be take the extra few hundred miles so that we could always sail towards San Francisco if we have any major mechanical failures. We choose the opposite approach because we have had very little issues with the engine, we have plenty of fuel and we were confident in our abilities to fix most of the issues that could arise with the engine and rigging.
I looked down and saw David up and about to relieve me so no need to go down and get him rousted. Lindi, my watch mate, had just gone down below to work on cleaning up the galley. As she was descending the companionway she told me to turn around and watch for nets and stuff. She had been forward on the bow keeping a close eye for more glass balls so I was trying to get confortable snuggled into my favorite spot looking aft. So I turned around and started watching the surface of the water in front of the boat for any obstacles. You would think that being 1000 miles off shore this wouldn’t be necessary, unfortunately we were in the middle of a huge debris where literally within a 100 yard radius of the boat you could always see something. Mostly it was small floating pieces of Styrofoam and plastic with an occasional line or plastic float and rarely a glass ball with webbing! I’m not seeing anything so I relax and enjoy the scenery of the rolling swells that remind me of small rolling hills back in Wyoming. All of a sudden we hear a loud bang and the engine drops considerable RPM ‘s. I look down into the companion way and see Lindi looking up at me with eyes that must have looked as large and concerned as mine. I immediately de-throttled the engine to neutral and looked around to assess the damage. Since David was getting ready to come up there was little delay in his entrance into the cockpit. I turned off the engine and he went below to check and see if the shaft would turn. He reported that it did so he suggested that I start the engine put it into gear and see what happens. I looked aft and saw a big net float below the surface about prop depth. We now knew what we had hit. So we shut off the engine and David got on his snorkel gear and dove on the prop, came up asked for the cockpit knife, went back down and came up with a big handful of netting. He reported everything was clear and no visual damage to the prop. Great news, however we had another issue to be concerned about.
In the early going on the return we discovered a strange behavior of the engine. Once we stopped the engine and turned it off we found that if we immediately restarted the engine the heat alarm would sound and there was no way for us to get it to stop buzzing without waiting for the engine to cool. While I was cruising in Mexico on Alocus I had the same engine as Avion and I explained to the crew that I had a similar issue but had installed a thermometer in line with the heat sensor so when this happened I could monitor the engine temperature to determine if the alarm was an issue and eventually the alarm would stop once the fresh water flow cooled the engine. We would wait to see if the alarm would go off and not knowing the temperature we felt uncomfortable waiting with the engine running so we would just let the engine sit for a while (typically we were motor sailing at the time so we were still making good way without it) and every time it would correct itself by simply waiting. This time there was no wind so instead of motor sailing everyone decided to go swimming except for Juan who like to be on the water not in it.
After swimming, bathing and general frolicking for about an hour we decided we should get back underway. We fired up the diesel and the engine heat alarm continued to blare. We thought for sure that after an hour the engine would have been cooled down enough to behave like we had experienced earlier. We decided to perform a more detailed analysis of the issue by tracking the water flow through the engine. We discovered plenty of water coming out of the pump, a good sign, but not so much coming out of the thermostat. We had replaced the thermostat before leaving Alameda so we were confident that it hadn’t fail. When we pulled it we saw that it was properly open so we decided to run the engine without a thermostat to see if we could get the alarm to stop. Sure enough it stopped so now we figured we are back in the same scenario as before but just had to hurry it along the cooling of the engine without the thermostat. We put the thermostat back in, fired up the engine with no alarm, put it in gear and bingo, the alarm came on; damn. Our thoughts now lead to a restricted orifice in the thermostat, so why not make it bigger? Since we had a spare we thought we should try making the hole in the thermostat slightly larger. This rational came from me based on my cruising experience; there had been lots of discussions about overheating issues involving boats that had sailed down to Mexico from Northern California, Oregon and Washington from cool water to warm water. We thought we could have a cool water thermostat and a warm water thermostat. Unfortunately the symptom persisted with the drilled out hole. Now the question was, what is the downside of running without a thermostat in warm water? Hopefully we will not find out because after 3 1/3 hours of trouble shooting this was the only way we could motor without the heat sensor sending an alarm.
Return Day 10 8/9/2014 10:00 A.M. (868 NM from Golden Gate Bridge)
After nearly 20 hours everything seems to be fine. We have a call into the owner to see if he can find out if there is any downside to what we are doing. We feel comfortable with our decision. Motoring through the Pacific High still seems like the right decision. Only time will tell!
Our shifts of 4 hours on and 6 hours off are working out very well. The days are actually 20 hours long consisting of two full rotations; one typically during daylight hours and one during the night time. Since every day the shifts change by 4 hours we never have one watch the same time of day within a week (which for us is 6 days). Every few days the schedules line up perfectly where you can experience both a sunset and a sunrise within a 14 hour period of two on-watches and one off-watch. Last night I was able to first see a beautiful sunset followed by a glowing near full moon; then after my off-watch, I saw a the moon drop over the horizon that rivaled any harvest moon I’ve seen immediately followed by a gorgeous red sunrise. It just doesn’t get any better than this; well maybe the sunset over the Tetons back home but my schedule there doesn’t typically allow for the follow up sunrise over the Absaroka Mountains.
White Noise
Return Day 8 8/07/20144 17:00 (1079 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
In about an hour and a half we will have completed 8 full days on the return, in approximately 7 hours we will pass through the half-way point. Ironically we are making better time than we did during the race and we are slogging uphill. We had a couple of windless days early in the race where we had no choice but to persevere via sails alone. Now, on the return, we can engage the iron spinnaker anytime we want! Prior to today we have only ran the engine approximately 36 hours and mostly while still sailing. The plan was to stay on a starboard tack until the wind ran out then power on the engine and turn right towards the Golden Gate. However, while on that starboard tack the winds would clock and veer causing us from time to time to turn on the engine to get a better purchase on the wind closer to the direction of San Francisco. The beauty of this is that we didn’t have to run the engine at high RPM’s with the sails up.
We left Kaneohe Bay with 167 Gal of Diesel with an estimated burn rate of of a gallon per hour making approximately 5 knots giving us a range of approximately 1100 miles while under power. This has turned out to be a very conservative estimate because with the 36 hours of motor sailing we have only had to offload 10 gallons from the diesel jugs into the tank to peg the gauge as full. We feel confident that from this point forward we can run the engine the entire trip and still have fuel leftover. Now that we are in the center of the high and see nothing but flat seas and very little wind we will be only motoring and will probably see higher consumption because we are no longer motor sailing.
We have now entered a completely different phase of the trip; one of less motion, easier handling and noise. The constant drone of the engine becomes what is known as white noise. Your mind mysteriously blocks it out so that you can function as if it isn’t there. With the help of earplugs sleeping becomes no different than in the peace and quiet of a home in the country. Avion is no longer listing at a 20 to 30 degree angle so doing simple chores like cooking dinner, cleaning up and writing are no longer frustrating challenges. The watches now are also a lot easier. With the engine running we can utilize the auto helm which becomes the third person on watch; in reality one person can handle the watch but with 5 on board we are still keeping with the 2 person watch teams at all times.
Lindi and I have changed our schedules so that we now have 2 hours out of 10 that we are on together. We had the fortune of being on watch together during the sunrise this morning, it was so romantic. We both agreed that this is the life we want to share together; this pioneer spirit where we are free to roam where ever the wind and water cares to carry us. The primary purpose of this adventure for me was to both confirm this wanderlust and help prepare for future voyages. Not just to hone my seamanship skills but to nurture this adventuresome spirit with Lindi. This morning proved that we are well on our way to watching countless sunrises and sunsets while exploring new territory gliding on the waves under Antigua, our sturdy vessel.
I have the fortune of spending the other 2 hours of my 4 hour watches with Nico. I just read his post on the beauty of the sea. We have talked about a lot of subjects and one was about his desire to attempt to capture that beauty in words and to convey how it affects him emotionally; I told him I’m sure he can do it justice and when I read it I was touched by its poetic beauty. I may have said this before but he is incredible, especially considering he has just turned 24. We spend hours talking mostly about sailing but also about the process of living a full life; there is no question in my mind that his will be amazing, it already has richness’s that people my age only dream. His stories based on his life experiences rivals Juan’s with only a third of the time for development. One of the topics I enjoy the most with him is talking about the necessary preparation for Antigua to make her cruiser ready. He has taken her out the Golden Gate down to Half Moon Bay, longer than any of my ventures with her, so he knows her well and has fabulous ideas about how to make her better. Between Lindi’s and Nico’s ideas we will make Antigua a first class cruiser.
Crossing the Pacific Ocean has its beauty as captured by Nico, but it also has its adventures. When one embarks on an adventure such as ours you want it to be full of experiences but not so many as to make it an ordeal. Thus far we have been fortunate. While writing this entry we just caught our 3rd fish, so again fresh Mahi Mahi later today. Early this afternoon we were honored with an escort by a huge Yellowtail Tuna that followed along our port side for well over an hour. Nico was so excited that he got out the fishing bag to string a cedar plug known for their attraction to Tuna. While he was tying up the line I spotted one of the glass balls used by Japanese fishermen to float nets Nico decided this was a much better prize than Yellowtail Sashimi (ironically both having Japanese roots) so he dropped the line, grabbed the tiller, cut the engine and reversed course in a matter of seconds. He proceeded to negotiate Avion alongside the ball and with his long arms gracefully scooped up the ball. The only problem now is that we need another four so we won’t have to figure out who gets this one. Juan believes it should go to the person that first spotted it, not the one that so gracefully retrieved it. His logic is that given enough time Juan eventually could have retrieved it, assuming others were willing to assist.
I have to say Nico did have a Juanism the other day, but unlike Juan he managed to rectify his. Juan’s friends concocted this term to describe the many embarrassing pitfalls bestowed upon Juan, by Juan simply being Juan. Nico is always ready when some rigging change needs to be made. Since he has only had to do one headsail change in 8 days, not even bothering to place a potential tattoo mark on his forearm, he is always looking for other ways to hone his nautical skills. The other day when the wind decided to take a vacation we had to drop the mainsail because it was no longer providing lift, it was being a drag. When the wind came back we had to reattach the main halyard (the line that raises the sail) to the main so we could hoist the sail. As he was attaching the shackle Avion pitched through a wave which caused Nico to lose his grip on the halyard, This miscue is often referred to by sailors’ as skying the Halyard; a dreaded condition that typically requires a trip up the mast. Juan ain’t going up there! Can you imagine what that would look like?? The picture that comes to mind is attempting to utilize the circus elephant as the acrobat on the flying trapeze that catches the beautiful maiden after she gracefully twirls from one bar to the next. Nico however looks like one of those muscular acrobats hanging by the back of their knees with the confidence of catching the maiden without a safety net. So you guess who volunteered to reclaim the skied halyard! Unfortunately the halyard managed to tie itself around the backstay, and there is only one other section of the boat harder to climb than the backstay, that would be the forestay. On Avion there are other lines that run parallel to the backstay providing some leverage; that is if you can call small 3/8 inch running back lines flimsily attached to a boat that is pitching and rolling in 4 to 6 foot seas with 12 knots of wind and Juan being one of your safety nets as leverage. The circus scenario sounds much safer. Now Nico wanted me to be clear in my explanation of this story so that his mother wouldn’t have a heart attack while reading the blog. Juan enjoyed meeting Nico’s mother and wanted to stay in good graces with her, especially when he discovered that she and his dad are great French cooks and have offered to entertain the Avion crew for a get together after the return. So I want to make it perfectly clear that both the skipper David and Nico would never attempt something that was both not within the skill set of the crew and wasn’t properly thought through with safety being the primary concern. They were able to rig a harness with 3 separate safety lines (two other halyards and his tether looped around the backstay) holding Nico in place while he climbed the backstay leveraging himself between the two running back lines. Juan scrambled to find a camera to capture the moment but Nico was down with the Main Halyard in hand being used as the 4th safety line, talk about redundancy upon redundancy, before the camera powered up.
This afternoon while Lindi attempted to get out of her bunk she lost her balance and crashed to the floor. We all heard the noise over the engine and David, being the responsible skipper, ran to her rescue and was greeted with a laughing Lindi. When he came on deck Juan asked what all the racket was and David told him that it was Lindi falling out of her bunk. Juan being concerned asked if she was alright and David said, “Not to worry she was laughing as she was pulling herself off the floor”. Juan countered with, “Yeah, she was laughing after she crashed her mountain bike also and has made three trips back to the Doctor concerning her shoulder!” This time the laughs were for real and was just a simple mishap. What do you think, a Juanism?
avionbianca 