6/30/12

Noon Position: 8 50' S, 116 57' W, SOG 0, COG ???, Day's Run 1,089,145
inches. I suspect that the field of plankton I sailed through a few
days ago contained a large quantity of barnacles - when I went for a
swim this morning the bottom was covered by innumerable miniature bodies
waving as the boat rolled. I spent about 2 hours scrubbing and teasing
the pilot fish. It seems my two big fish have abandoned me for a
passing whale or dolphin - the last few times I've been in only my
little friend is there. Today as we drifted at mach 0 there were two
other schools of little tiny fish hiding around the rudder and keel -
I'm not sure what they were, but unfortunately too small to do much of
anything with but chase with my finger. As I was swimming Odyssey was
drifting imperceptibly forward, driven by the roll of the swell on her
keel and mainsail, and looking down a parade of strange gelatinous
creatures passed below me - some trailing tentacles, some curled into
weirdly symmetrical curves, only to unroll and drift away when
disturbed. way down in the depths I caught the wriggle of a little fish
- It didn't look like one of my pilot fish, but they did seem to like
hiding deep under the boat when I was in the water. There are probably
people who would pay exorbitant amounts of money for my life at the
moment - drifting through warm tropical seas on a private yacht,
swimming at will, baking in the golden rays of the sun, if only I had a
bar equipped to make frozen tropical drinks. I'm very close to the line
of the ITCZ/monsoon trough - for some reason in the weather discussion
yesterday it morphed from one to the other. The hints of breeze and
swell now trickle from the north instead of wafting up from the south.
Unfortunately it's a lot harder to drift upwind in 1kt of breeze than it
is to drift downwind, so today's run is best expressed in inches