Lazy Day

I left Half Moon Cay early this morning. Going back out is always a little bit easier as one has the track line on the chart plotter to mark your course in. It is difficult to be precise but it is some comfort, particularly if one has marked the hazards found on the way in. Early morning saw REBOOT heading south direct (or as direct as one can go without hitting anything) for Punta Gorda and checking out of Belize. WAYWARD SUN and CARIBBEAN SOUL II left a bit after me on their way back to Cucumber Beach to pick up mail and parts. I expect we will end up together again either in the Rio Dulce or the Bay Islands of Honduras. Which brings to mind that I have not seen HOBO II on the AIS for several days so I am not sure where Jim and Darlene are at the moment.

Today has been a lazy day. The winds are in the 10 knot range and a little further forward than I would prefer. (As Jack Aubrey would say, "Two points free" would be better. Since the winds are light the wave and current action on REBOOT's heading is more pronounced - my German Friend Otto Pilot is having a harder time keeping course - more like 30 degrees each side of the track. This results in major ongoing changes to sail trim so I slow down and speed up on a regular basis. The breeze is cool, the sky except for the cumulus clouds over the land quite clear and the ride comfortable. I am enjoying sailing along at an easy pace.

The transition back to sailing has been nice. Most of the last month I have been motoring against adverse currents and adverse winds. Today I have been able to keep the engine off and enjoy the quiet. The winds are to remain light overnight. Last night the sky was crystal clear. I am about 20 miles off the coast of Belize so what light pollution there might be should be very limited.

My friends on the Maritime Mobile Service Net ran phone patches to both Trevor and Spencer in the last couple of days. I find it so cool that I can talk to them while out in the middle of the ocean or in this case the Caribbean Sea. (A phone patch is hooking up my radio communication from REBOOT to shore with a telephone call to the desired party. Cool! Old fashioned too, this is how it was done before satellites and cellular telephones.)