Day 5 at sea

I am sitting right in front of the fan in the cabin writing this. It is already very stuffy down here. I find that it is easier to write early in the morning.

Big events yesterday--we are all over our motion sickness--yeah! Had our first cooked meal last night that was enjoyed by all. Cooking on the stove in the rolling galley is quite a challenge. I had to secure the pot over the flame with two bungee cords. That did the trick.

Passed our one and only islands yesterday. The Caroline Islands. We were trying to pass them to the east however the wind did not get us far enough so we passed them on the west. They are a series of atolls--most likely uninhabited (I don't know that for sure.) Saw a boat anchored off one of them. We were pretty far away. Just as we were passing we hit a big squall--winds gusting to 30 knots. When that happens we need to turn the boat away from the wind a bit (called bearing off) which stabilizes the boat more.

Saw my first several flying fish yesterday. They are amazing. They really do look like birds flying low to the water. No other wildlife other than seabirds (which Kenny would like.) Sure is hard to focus on them with the binoculars to identify them as something more than simply a seabird! This is when those self-stabilizing binocs would be great.

I am having some huge ahah moments about the night sky--moon, stars, planets. The one that I can share is the fact that the moon, sun, and the planets all appear in the sky on the same line (or arc). In other words, just before the sun rises following the same path the sun will follow during the day, you can see venus rising. The only way I can understand this is to think about the diagrams that we have seen about our solar system and how all of the planets are rotating around the sun in concentric circles (the same plane) just different diameters. On the other hand, the stars are not part of our solar system so they "rotate" in the sky as the earth rotates. Therefore the relationship between the planets and the stars is always changing--thus part of the "magic" around astrology--e.g, moon rising in Virgo, etc.

Last night we kept the bimini (canvas covering of the cockpit) up because we thought we thought it might rain. I realized how much I missed seeing the stars and learning new constellations!

Well, if I can keep my intention this morning, I plan on cooking an Asian omellete. (I'll let you know tomorrow how that goes.)