GMT: 1722

Lat: 22 33.8 N
Long: 21 17.6 W
Speed: 7 knots
Course: 201 T
Sails: Same as it has been for days - 4 lowers and topsail
Wx: Wind NE force 4 seas 4-6'

Shortly after the morning watch came on this morning the wind filled in from the NE - after a night of schooner torture (lumpy seas with light shifting breezes at just enough of an angle to slam the rig around and cause that shuddering motion throughout the ship). Big event occurred - we gybed! Mate Moreland landed a great star fix just after dawn, locating us 230 miles off the coast of Mauritania with the freshening wind giving us just the right set to gybe and lay a course south.

Shortly after the gybe - we got a few more sun lines that confirmed that Amistad is now south of the Tropic of Cancer - officially in tropical waters. It is almost uncanny how the warmth in the air, the color of the water and even the spirits aboard ship all seem to have taken on a wash of tropicalness. As if just to confirm this even more - as Amistad started picking up speed and dancing along the backs of the seas, we had two tunas on our fishing lines - the only fish able to keep up with Amistad as she barreled along between 9 and 10 knots. We only managed to land one of the tunas, your's truly lost the second one just when we tried to land it - I may never live that one down! So we snacked on some sushi and hear that this amazing, beautiful streamlined fish - will be served in honor tonight.

Hard to imagine a more perfect day to define Amistad's entry into tropical seas. Just to make sure we all got it - the ship report was done in sarongs... pictures to follow.

Eliza


 

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