31 degrees, 54 minues North 116 degrees, 19 minutes West Lat/Lon 2300 on 10/24/11. Came up from sleeping since 1900 (just after dinner) to a beautiful starry night after a start earlier in the day that continued into cloudy skies with a little drizzle. A welcome change to the clouds/fog that we’ve been in fotr at least the last week or so. The begining of the rally this morning was fun. Many TV cameras were there for the parade of boats out of the harbor. There was a ceremonial “parade start” off Shelter Island that used the shotgun that is actually used to start the America’s Cup. They shipped it down from San Francisco just for this event.
Many of the boats we started near yelled; “nice costumes yesterday, but where’s Tinkerbell?”, so I guess I was successfully dsiguised with my wig!
The real start was at 1100 off Pt Loma. The only problem was no wind. So we do what’s called a “rolling start”. In other words, we’ve been motoring at no more than six knots, until such time that the wind comes in and the committee boat (that’s sailing with us) calls on the radio and announces that we turn off engines and sail. There’s a decent breeze forecast for tomorrow, so I’m guessing we’ll start some time after the radio check in (roll call), which is at 0730. In the mean time, the engine’s on and we’re motoring down the penninsula about 15 miles offshore.
We’ve already passed through several pods of hundreds of dolphins each, all jumping in unison as they swim along. Always a delight to see them and of course to see Ann’s face light up as she heads to the bow to watch them swim on our bow wave, passing just inches from the boat. Several whale sightings were announced on the radio net, but we haven’t seen any yet on Charisma.
Dinner was a success. I actually made it yesterday in the pressure cooker and left it on the stove with the top on. Letting it heat and then cool down with the pressure cooker locked, seals it so it doesn’t need refrigeration right away. That way we don’t have to cook the first night out and suffer possible seasickness while struggling with food prep in the first hours of getting used to the boat’s motion again. Split pea, barley, beans, potatoes and some penne pasta. Good stuff!
We’ll start fishing in the morning, so who knows, maybe Tuna or Mahi for dinner tomorrow (if not, there’s always SPAM.