Whacked By A Flying Fish!

Position: 13 degrees, 16 minutes north; 150 degrees, 05 minutes west 142 nm day

Well, almost.

It’s 0400 and I’m sitting under the dodger minding my own business when a very large WHUMP! went off right by my head. Startled me to say the least. At first I thought maybe a booby had crash landed on top of the dodger so I very cautiously peered out from underneath and over the top. No booby. Hmm, that was a big thunk and it wasn’t a wave. Must have been a flying fish. I looked around with a flashlight, but didn’t find anything. At first light though I could see a trail of fish slime on the dodger window showing the impact point near my head and subsequent flight path up the dodger window and over the top. He much have ricocheted off and landed back in the water. Somewhere in the deep there’s a very confused fish with a headache telling stories of almost being abducted by aliens.

So, in the “It’s so hot” department; It’s so hot the clear plastic dome on the binnacle compass has started cracking where the intense sun was focused on it this morning. We’re going to have to leave the cover on it during the day to protect the half that is still clear.

Today was a nice day, but still frustrating due to the north wind. Then around sunset it even got more frustrating as squalls and rain rolled through and the wind died down. Just when I thought it was going to be a truly miserable night the rain cleared and the wind filled in at around 20 knots from the NNE. We added a reef (we’re now double reefed for the night) and we’re rolling along in the right direction for a change, at about 6.5 knots. That’s more like it!