Pacific Ocean 1 April 2010 17.0864N 116.4972W

Well, we dreamed up all kinds of possible April fools day posts: “We made it! with our position in Alaska, narwhal sightings, sea-mounts exploding in front of us into islands; but in the end Frank said April fools jokes only work first thing in the morning – guess you have to get your joke in before Google puts everyone on their toes for other jokes throughout the day – and I was still in yesterday-mode when I posted my last message (first message of today). Besides you’re all too informed to believe me if I said we’d seen a narwhal.

The map feature on the hypercities.com/mo site can’t be looking too interesting right now, just a whole lot of that blue I described (from here on out That Blue). There are sea-mounts ahead and if we weren’t passing by them at night, That Blue might change color a bit to a lighter version of itself, which would be interesting (doesn’t take much to get us excited these days). We’ll have to look for future sea-mounts on our path for that novelty.

Our correspondents have informed us that Clarion is known for it’s birds, it’s a prime tuna spot, and hacer carce, could have meant “are you carsick” in which case they could have been inviting us to stop on by. I did indeed see not one but two tropic birds there (a male and a female in spring no less). And we saw large quantities of tuna off the point. An opportunity missed perhaps, but we did find the trade winds early this morning and are now sailing along wing and wing keeping an eye out for other traders. We’re not exactly in a hurry, but when you see the slow advancement of our markers in the next 20-40 days, you may better understand our eagerness to make way.

I’m feeling a bit bad about saddling all of Mexico with the characteristic of being collective paperwork collectors in yesterday’s post. I should have written “Mexican officials love their paperwork” not just “Mexicans…” I’m sure the average citizens here get as frustrated as the rest of us having to bring every document in triplicate to a minimum of 3 official agencies to get simple things done. So apologies to the rest of Mexico for my unfair generalization. Our own officialdom has found new ways to frustrate it’s citizens despite the paperless office (as anyone who has attempted to fill out an online US government form will attest to). Reframed thus, their desire for official looking documents is almost an endearing quality (almost).

Logan just hollered from the cockpit that he saw an “Armada of flying fish.” His new goal is to get hit in the face by a flying fish, I guess he figures that would be something worth writing home about. We’ve been seeing a lot more flyng fish, so he may yet achieve that goal. As you can see our attempts to teach them to be goal oriented is working!

The trades came just in time, we got something caught in the propellor last night (yes my watch, but you can’t exactly see very well at night…when you’re busy composing emails…) Likely a fishing line, or a large plastic bag; if this thing is similar to things we’ve gotten caught in props in the past. The solution is to dive and take a look, but now that we have wind we get to wait for calmer seas which will likely be when we have warmer water…somewhere near the equator. We still have some maneuverability in an emergency, but using it now would just wrap whatever it is tighter, making a tougher job for our diver (I hope we’re not drawing straws for that task – as managing owner of this vessel, I do get to overrule some of the captain’s decisions).

With the coming of the wind we lost our sunshine, you win some and you loose some. The sky is full of big overlapping puffy clouds that block out all of the sky’s blue. That Blue still follows directly adjacent to the boat, but the rest of the ocean has taken on a steely gray look.

xoxomo

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Isla Clarion 31 Marzo 2010 17.6475N 115.6916W

Land-ho! We approached a beautiful island today – Isla Clarion. But the clarion call on the radio was “marcharce” or “hacer carce?” I think that means get the blankety-blank out of here. Since there is no wind, we arrived slowly and are leaving slowly – too slowly for their comfort, they’ve called 3 times since they sighted us from land, to make sure we are leaving. I know it may look like we’re standing still, but we’re going a whole 3 knots, with the little wind we have, I’m impressed – apparently the military men at the base here are not. No navy ships chasing us down yet though. We were not planning on stopping, just coming in for a closer look. The cliffs here are beautiful, a ribbon of red rock cuts through the yellow cliffs dramatically. Large tuna jumping off the point, two turtles getting friendly, whales surfacing for big gulps of air, and that blue I’d described seems bluer. I don’t know if all the color is really that bright, or if it’s just the contrast after 3 days of blue. The island is now slipping slowly astern, the colors fading as the atmosphere between us and land increases.

A little later: Well, the navy ship did chase us down. I’m exaggerating, but a ragtag crew* of 8 of the 13 guys on the island, packed in a 20’ Panga to come see who we were, and to do a quick “embarcacion” report. Maybe “marcharce” doesn’t mean what I thought it meant? Maybe they were saying “embarcarce”?? My Spanish still needs a whole lot of work. Rosetta stone does not cover any of terms one might need passing boats or entering ports. I could have asked and answered useful questions like “Su casa es roja?” Or “Quando escribe ustedes?” I did manage to let them know that, “Isla Clarion es muy bonita.” They must not get a lot of boats here. They were nice enough, I think the commandant was expecting a plea from us for a visit, Marc had sent us a quick google report on Isla Clarion** this morning with quotes from sailing bloggers who had visited in the past few years. So we knew the military manned a weather station, and with the approval of the local commondant, visits are possible. But we were on a mission, not wanting to break the stride and all that. Truly a beautiful place though. And they got to admire our handsome Zarpe and do some paperwork, which seemed to make them happy; there must not be a lot of opportunity for that in such a remote spot – one thing I’ve learned is the Mexicans love their paperwork, copies in triplicate with official stamps are de rigueur. They were disappointed that I did not have a copy of the Zarpe and our coast guard document on hand to give them. Not being a formal collector of official paperwork, it’s a little difficult for me to relate to, but I’m sure they would find it strange that I collect pictures of oddball rocks and shells and dirt and junk (and would collect the real thing if Frank would let me bring it on board). So we’re probably even on the global oddity scale. It will be a major culture shock when the paperless office arrives here though – as big of a shock as it’s been for me to realize that the digital image is all I can take away. As a kid one of my favorite things was to collect rocks and shells. I used to sneak them into the bottom side pocket of my dad’s Kelty backpack (opposite the pocket with the lemon drops) when we’d go hiking in the Sierras. He owes me in part for his current fitness, I’m sure that years of added weight helped build some lifelong stamina. Frank’s on to me though, and Silver Lining, while built for a heavy load, would sink if my collector’s instinct were set free of it’s digital bonds. When the same digital bonds arrive here, there may be another revolucion!

We had a little wind around the island, even flew the spinnaker after our visit. But back to motoring now. It’s 3 a.m. another hour of watch for me, before I hand it over to the captain.

xoxomo

*Kennan wondered at the military budget here. “They must not have a big military budget, did you notice they were sharing a uniform – one guy had the camouflage hat, one the camouflage pants, another the jacket…” Other than one fully uniformed officer and the smattering of camouflage, they were all wearing standard fishing attire – barefoot, shorts, brightly colored t-shirts.

**We did get it before we arrived thanks for the fast response on that one Marc!

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