Tuvalu to Marshalls - Day 3 - Games in the cockpit

Grade 10 at sea.  Projects due on arrival in Majuro !

Hello,

Today was lovely!

The kids and I played Yahtzee (a Christmas gift) in the cockpit all morning. It was fun because it engaged everyone, including Benjamin, who was my dice-rolling partner. Johnathan finished as champion but everyone was hooked :) Victoria liked the game because she could keep knitting Christmas mittens in between turns.

More knitting

When Benjamin woke up early in the morning, Victoria told him all the devices were still in the oven for protection from lightning, so they got busy with markers and paper. By the time I emerged from my off-watch, Benjamin had created a 'dinghy-donkey' dinosaur that was as tall as a tree, had red and green stripes, and ate apples as its only food. This creature captured his imagination for most of the day.

More mittens for the Fluenta crew in preparation for Alaska.

The most exciting thing to report today is that we have not seen lightning for 24 hours. We still kept our devices in the oven as a precaution (and to prompt Benjamin to play with something that didn't plug in), but the skies have been much more subdued than they were the first night.

On the other hand, we have not seen wind above 7 kts, either, so we are making slow progress. Fluenta sails beautifully on a close reach in light air, so it seems like magic to have 6 kts of true wind and over 5 kts of boat speed. We have motored here and there when the wind dropped even lower, but for the most part, we have just been ghosting along on flat seas.

Flat seas make for easy cooking, so dinner tonight was freshly fried Mahimahi and rice. Lunch today was leftover mahimahi and rice from yesterday :) Lunch tomorrow will be the same. After that, we need to catch another fish.

Johnathan and I had a nice chat in the cockpit when the rest of the boat was sleeping. These are the moments under the stars that my mama-heart holds on to. We are pretty sure we had dolphins following us for a few minutes: we could hear puffs of air, and we could see streaks of bioluminescence. I wouldn't let him shine a flashlight on them, so we just had to guess, but we certainly had some kind of company on our watch for a little while.

Much love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2018-12-26 10:57 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 02°57.11'S 176°51.84'E


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