05-Apr-2006 Position

12'05.2N/111'28.5W
05-Apr-2006 Noon

144nm made good last 24 hours, 764 Miles from Z-town!!!

We motor sailed all night with a calm sea and no wind. But at sunrise we got a 10 knot wind from dead astern, and have been making 4-5 knots all afternoon.

There are lots of stars out at night. So when the seas are calm, the moon reflects off the ocean. Also, an occasional porpoise will jump out of the water right next to the cockpit. That always seems to catch me off guard.

We had a big ship come up behind us at 3am. Amy, having the watch, gave them a call on the radio asking if they saw us. The ship came back saying they saw us and were turning to starboard to pass astern of us. Amy was pretty impressed that she got that huge ship to turn around us. I told her that there ship was full of men and love to have women calling the ship for favors.

One piece of equipment we have been using this trip that we have not used before is our C.A.R.D (Collision Avoidance Radar Detector). It is a small LED alarm panel that has an antenna on the back of the boat. It detects other ship's radars. So last night when the ship came up on the horizon, the C.A.R.D. started chirping and showed us what direction the ship was.

We have a radar, but it consumes a lot of power. So when the engine is not running it drains the batteries. Plus, you have to stare at screen all the time to make sure that there is there is nothing detected showing up. I really like this radar detector. A lot of single handed sailors use these so they can sleep at night.

About the only exciting thing that happened today is that Amy got to watch her 20 Years of Oprah DVD's that I got her for Christmas. And we saw a shoe in the water.

If you would like to write us, you can email us here on the boat.