Night watches on the gulf of Mexico have you watching out for shrimp boats, work boats heading to the rigs, and of course the rigs themselves. This trip, its been about enjoying the stars, looking for the occasional commercial or sailboat out on the horizon or just keeping the boat heading the correct direction and adjusting the sails. Mostly its poking Auto, when there is a wind shift.

Awesome day, woke up a little upset about the miles under the keel since the engines were turned off and late raising of the full sail. After that we have been kicking it all day motor sailing, with one engine at 1400 rpm, just to push us over the wave when the wind dies.

Ham and cheese omelets for breakfast, and just chilled out most of the day as we sailed onward.

After lunch snack quesidilla, motivation got the better of us. Christine had been wanting to do a load of laundry, and with a beautiful sunny day. We tried the washing machine. I worked but sucked out fresh water tank on the starboard side dry as a bone. Doh! Note to self, use the ‘short’ cycle when making your own water, took the better part of the day to replenish the water supply with the watermaker. But all back in business now.

We have been dragging fishing lines behind the boat for thousands of miles with only one Bonita to show for it. That all changed today. First Ron hooked a sweet Dorado (Mahi Mahi) right after I had changed from a small lure to a large one, Doh! I watched him filet up that puppy, now in the freezer. A while later, I hooked another Dorado, a bit bigger I might add, and I cleaned and made steaks from this guy. Guess what we had for dinner. Awesome Mahi Mahi over rice and green beans.

Captain Ron cooked up the delicious meal while I put the Lazy Jacks back together. Christine even really enjoyed the fresh MahiMahi going back for seconds.

I’m starting to think that if Jack wasn’t so lazy Matt wouldn’t have to work to fix them. They really need to be re-done right, instead of scraps of line that are there now.

Another beautiful night tonight, no clouds, lots of stars, almost warm enough to leave the jacket inside. The winds are shifting north, so we are not on the nose. Right now our course has a 30 degree fluctuation between 250 and 280, every so often, with 275 being the direction to the destination. Winds are light at 8-10kt, but with the iron genny (engine) filling in, we are still getting 6kt to the destination. Minimal waves so the sleeping is good.

Crew is still doing well, ready to make better time. Optimistic that the forecast holds and we can fly a spinnaker soon, and at least are doing better than 30 miles we got a few days ago. Out best guess is that we’ll be a week later than planned but that’s still an early guess, we’ll be trying to come up with a plan in a couple of days as what to do about the airfare and tickets during busy season.

Course over ground: 256 Speed over ground: 5.3kn Total miles through water: ugh, reset again,now says 102 Miles to destination: 1508 kn if we were a bird.