Rum and Coconut water....you cannot get it in America

-Harry Belafonte, Rum and Coconut Water

I am sitting on Island Times back deck. It is Tuesday evening August 4^th around 1800 local time. Island Time Jim is below having s short nap, and I am minding the autopilot (for all the minding it needs, just an occasional tweak of a control knob). We are about two hundred and thirty five miles from Port Isabel, henceforth christened by ITJ as Port Uglyville. That’s approximately 2/3 of the distance to be covered. If all goes well, we will be hitting the Brazos Santiago Pass around mid afternoon Thursday.

Island Time is a stout boat and all that I figured she’d be. An Island Packet 370, she is a sailors dream. Plenty of lines and controls, and the layout is oh-so-thoughtful. Vangs, outhauls, travelers and cars-  each in a precise place, each with a precise purpose. Down below the galley is laid out perfectly, and there have been several five star dinners cooked down there during this trip. Hell, we even got showers yesterday, something foreign and strange to me….

We have had a lack of wind and it continues today. The breeze is intermittent and moderate from our stern quarter (about SSW), just funky and not really enough to sail on. The iron genny is running, and we are hoping fervently the water pump impellor stays together long enough to get home since there isn’t a spare aboard. However, I’m pretty confident ITJ could rig something up, and he disclosed a worse case scenario plan using the 110 volt pump which powers the A/C unit in a pinch to circulate raw water….pretty damn inventive if you ask me. I am thankful to be sailing with someone of this character. Makes me a lot better sailor too. When given the opportunity to sail with a master – go.

Last night the breeze came up around 0230 or so. We had been sailing under stay’sl and main with the engine going, when I noticed that the wind was about 14kts off our starboard beam (SSW). Almost delirious with excitement at the prospect of pure sailing (something we only did a little bit on day one. Just not enough wind) I effortlessly popped out the big genny.

Of course it wouldn’t set right, so I woke up ITJ.

Of course I had taken out way too much sail.

Of course we had to struggle for about 30 minutes to get everything set and balanced again, gently taking out a bit more sail, tweaking with this, toying with that a little at a time, which is of course the way it should be. Lesson learned.

I am learning to sail downwind, the most difficult point of sail

Seas have been mostly pretty calm- one to two feet maybe.  Today we had a little larger for awhile, but they are now calming back. Skies have been mostly clear. We had a hint, just a hint of light sprinkle for maybe two minutes late this morning. Currently the water depth is more than four thousand feet deep, and we are making about five and a half knots (VMG).

We have just the slightest bit of a northbound current.

Okay. Enough of the technical log.

ITJ keeps the boats up to date and I will surely plagiarize some if it for my own memories and records . I have beaucoup videos and photos, and will try and put some stuff together when we return.

By the way, he suggests if you need a high quality gaff hook dive the following coordinates: 22 18 North 88 12 West. (directly from the log book expletives deleted)……

Since day one we have caught a Cero mackerel and a Yellowtail Snapper trolling a silver lure through the azure water.

We have run across whale sharks on three occasions (all down along the Yucatan), slowed down watching them feed slowly across the surface not more than 25 feet from this stellar craft.

We have seen pelagic birds, seldom seen from Terra firma, Boobies, jaegers and shearwaters, there have bee pods of spotted dolphins playing off of our bow. There have been blooms of jellyfish and flying fish have accompanied us in every other wave it seems., flying fast and low over the endless peaks and valleys. Nights have been black with every star in the universe up there in the sky, the Milky Way lighting up the water all around, piercing the black of night.

And it has been hot. Plenty hot. By about 1430 you find yourself madly searching for just enough shade to curl up in and have a narcoleptic coma, trying not to roast. And I suppose I could moan about not having the wind. But that’s all subject to change on a minutes notice. Out here there are few constants. The only constant is the sea itself. And so we are headed towards that dreaded “N” word. No, I am not a bigot, at least not concerning people. And I am yearning to see my family (and friends) up there, but now……I have seen the light. (insert church choir here).

I believed in my Country.  Still do. Always will. But what it has become  is painfully evident down there. We revel in our own odious offal and expect the world to tolerate our behavior. We love having our own noses rubbed in our trash and excrement, wrongdoing-r-us.  We are failing, stumbling, blind and terminally wounded. And the sad part is, we don’t even realize it.

 We just keep fiddling away while the whole place burns down around us.

We are judged by our government, which I confess is pretty lame these days, and it’s not lookin’ like it’s going to get a whole lot better. Our permissive society has bred successive generations of crass individuals, all looking for instant gratification. It was evident in the tourists in Isla Mujeres. Mostly kids abusing the credit card to the max, behaving badly like it’s the Last Mango in Paris. Those are just a few of the things that make the “N” word disgusting and ugly.

Jim just got up, he was an hour late making a log entry. I am going to secure here. If the weather remains this placid, I will try and update again (obviously for later publication) before we make the jetties.