Sunday, March 31, 2013

TEAM CALIFORNIA: Jamaica to NYC- Somewhere between South Carolina and Bermuda

Today, I had my first shower in 8 days. I have to admit that I wasn't in any particular hurry to take it. NOt that I don't care about hygiene- we have
plenty of wet wipe showers, but at some point, you just don't care as much about a shower. You know you'll have to wool a spinnaker and be sweaty again in
no time. It is still hot here, but not sweltering like it was near Panama. Other than layer upon layer of suncream, I didn't feel that dirty. My hair did
feel a bit like straw. Really, the only smell that is bothersome is that of stinky feet. There are two persons on board with the worst smelling
feet/shoes/socks imaginable.

Speaking of smells, Guido and I were on motherwatch and found 2 turkey kielbasas ( for our dinner of pasta with sausage and tinned veg) in our day bag that
had gone off and exploded. It was pretty foul. Guido kindly rid the boat of the offending meat himself (we kept the plastic in the rubbish bin, sealed
tightly in a bag, now stashed in the laz). Almost as bad as the unfathomable idea that the saussage would keep without refrigeration in the tropics was the
idea of actually storing said meat with the rest of the food for the day. We immediately took to task to find other day bags with more meat in them and
also washed all of the tins that were in the bag to save us from serious gastrointestinal discomfort.

Poor Russell has been busy this leg - as he has every other leg. His engineering and fix it skills put him as the go to guy for all things broken. We seem
to be killing a lot of impellers and things with ball bearings. At least the leak has been fixed.

Chicago Joe has been entertaining us through the winldess days with many a tune, none of which can be repeated once off the boat. Raiya and I often find
ourselves sharing a quiet laugh at the ridulousness or irony of the human dynamnics that surround us. We are desperatelymissing (Sir) Charles Willson on
thisleg and hope he can join us in NYC for the rest of the race. Get well soon Charles!

We have seen Marlin, trigger or parrot fish, a whale, blue bottle jellyfish (ouch!), and a few flying fish (one was after Clive). Since leaving Jamaica, the
sea life has been sparse. Although we have left the lovely Carribean Sea, the ocean is still a magnificent bottomless blue. The fact that I have chosen to
read about Steven Callahan's 72 days in a life raft in the Caribbean SEa shouldbe ignored. Atleast now I know thatI should havepacked that spear gun that I
don't actually own. Good book, though. The sunsets way out here are absolutely amazing.

We have been sailing slowly the last few days as the winds has died and has not produced as forecasted. We are currently making speeds of 4-5 knots and
havepickedup a bit of the Gulf Stream to push us along.

I'd love to hear about how Roz Savage is doing on her quest to conquer the 2nd of 3 legs across the Pacific. She can be followed at rozsavage.com. Please
keep me posted! She is one amaaaaazing woman.

Please NOte: when sending me e-mail, do not include the original message or send any photos or any other attachment or imbedded images or footers.

PeaceOut, Bagley (32 28'.62N 74 26'.14W)

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