Becalmed a thousand miles from land

Who would have thought? I'm amazed what this experiment in "creative journalism" has turned into. My fellow watch captain, John, aka "The Hobbit", is a closet comedian columnist, now with quite a fan club and following. I'm not sure what most of it has to do with sailing but he sure has been entertaining. I wish I could say that most of what he's written is a distortion and exaggeration of reality here on the Sauvage, but alas most of it is quite true!

This morning, our eighth day on the water, dawned with almost no wind and just over a 1000 miles yet to go to Diamond Head buoy that the finish. It is said that this mid-point between California and Hawaii if the farthest point from land anywhere on the planet. It is more than a 1000 miles in any direction to any kind of land. It appears that we have ventured too close to the dreaded Pacific High and have run out of wind. We aren't the only boat to do so, but that doesn't make us feel any better. Rumor has it that the captain has deemed that the culprit will be hung from the yardarm at sunset tonight. I'm not sure that will help us get to there any faster, but we'll have an extra beer to share. We are still in second place for our fleet with several boats way back in the fleet now hot on our heels to catch up.

Recent menu items: Ham and cheese on English muffins for breakfast, Dodger hotdogs for lunch, and a tasty lamb curry for dinner (thanks Dori!). Tomorrow is the last of our pre-cooked frozen dinners and then it's into our canned goods for survival rations. The visions of our first meal in Waikiki are now part of our daily fantasies. Beer and pizza seem to be at the top of the list.

Ah, a sailor's life for me (as the Hobbit would say).

-Jeff

P.S. My apologies to anyone who thought they were going to read a blog anything like our "A Taste of Cruising Mexico"!