Since yesterday morning we have travelled 159 miles, still trucking along nicely. We had some pretty large rollers yesterday in the range of 10 - 15 feet, but our point of sail was such that it made for a nice relaxed, comfortable voyage. Shelby was still feeling sea sick, but at 4:00p.m. when we were surrounded by a large pod of dolphins (Gray Striped Dolphins) who entertained us for over an hour, she felt better as she watched them at the bow. It was funny that she said "I wish I could touch one", when all of a sudden a flying fish smacked her in the forehead!
So we are all thinking that it just makes matters worse for Shelby to just sit like a lump in the cockpit, (as Doug says) so after Peter and I made dinner, Doug went below to do the dishes. I did my "tough love" routine and told Shelby that she would need to help her Dad and pull her weight and so she went below and Team Roehrig did an awesome job with the days' worth of dishes. The trick seems to be keeping her busy and she is doing just awesome now, with rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes and cheerful as always.
After dinner, Doug was on the first night shift, so when Peter & I went to bed she stayed in the cockpit with her Dad. It was a beautiful night with a brilliant, bright, almost full moon. They got an added bonus as a pod of Common Dolphins played around the boat for an hour. The seas were getting pretty messy at this point and we were unable to really sleep as it felt like we were in a washing machine.
When I came on for my shift we had already reefed (I get special treatment on my shifts as I don't have as much sailing experience, and we always take more precautions for sailing in the dark). The moon was still shining brightly, and I felt a glow of happiness with Peter sleeping in the cockpit beside me(way more comfortable than our forward cabin with the lumpy seas) while I listened to the wise and melodic voice of Sidney Poirter (An Immeasurable Life) and knit another square for Kylie's afghan. The moon disappeared at about 5:00a.m and around 5:30a.m. I saw a light off in the distance that looked like it might be a boat. I went forward a bit to get a better view of it, and it turned out to be an incredible moon setting. While I was mesmerized by this, a large pod of dolphins surrounded the boat and showed off for a whole hour as the sun came up. Far too magical for words!
We are having a great, sunny day and we've launched the genneker, without incident. All of us participated and Shelby also coiled all the lines and is happily on deck, chatting away in her delightful enthusiastic manner. It's great to have her back and I"m sure we'll be playing lots of games together again.
Doug is still under the weather, but it is definitely a stomach issue (and no Danny, Kylie and Ryan, it is NOT from my cooking!) He's toughing it out and pushing through it, so you'd never even know that he wasn't 100%.
We have almost reached the 1/3 way mark. Tonight is the full moon - how very lucky we are to be out here in the vast ocean to experience it. It will become more difficult each day to get the right propagation for the Ham Radio sending blog updates, so please DO NOT WORRY if you don't hear from us for a few days. Have yourself a great week.
P.S. Halldo has requested a daily "spotting update", so for yesterday, 5 flying fish on the deck, one squid, one floating plastic Seven Up bottle (it's a mystery), about 100 striped dolphins, 50 common dolphins in the evening and hundreds more this morning and a partridge in a pear tree (nix on the last one).
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