Over and over. I see dawn, have breakfast. Sleep for three hours, come up near noon to take the wheel and have lunch. Go sleep for afternoon, have dinner. Take watch to sunset. Sleep until about 2300, take helm again. On and on...
31 Dec 1999
20°05.969N 032°52,105W
Winds ENE 15-18 Knots (That's more like it!) Barometer 1035 Log 3426 Sunny
Course 280° M
Comments:
Winds are pleasant, shifting, may have to change course steered to 240°M.
1200 miles into this trip and it is getting to be monotonous. Not a bad thing, since I care not for any drama. We are approaching the millenium, the one that the computer programmers have scammed everyone into expensive program repairs to ensure that computers will still operate into the next century.
Still, at midnight I planned on listening to Radio Canada on the shortwave receiver to see if the GPS satellites are all falling out of the sky! (This is a reason to sail with a sextant and a nautical almanac!)
The weather was so nice that we shook out the reefs in the headsail to maintain our six knot passage, and all were in good cheer for the comfortable seas and the knowledge that everything was as it should be. I chilled a bottle of Mumm's Champagne that would be poured for all at sunset.
Celebrating New Year with Chris;
SWWBO looks thrilled:
Each got a coffee cup full of champagne, we toasted each other and the New Year. Afterwards, I went to bed and when it was my time to wake up for watch I had the most difficult time trying to regain consciousness! After ten days of no alcohol, I really felt the effects, so it was a good thing we did not allow the British tradition of "Sunset G & T's". (Many sailboats will celebrate sunset with a Gin and Tonic for each crew and it is a time to relax from routine and chat)
The sea is stimulating enough without adding alcohol.
01 Jan 2000
19°43.560N 033°51.850W
Winds NE 20 Knots Barometer 1031 Log 3486 Course 270°M
Ptly Cloudy
Comments;
Happy New Year!
Yep. And I am standing my two hour on the helm. Same as it ever was...
2 comments:
We are approaching the millenium, the one that the computer programmers have scammed everyone...
It really wasn't a scam. I spent the better part of two or three years leading up to 12/31/1999 deep in millennium remediation activities, and they were considerable. The passing of the millennium without major incident was one of the least publicized success stories of all time.
Apropos of not much... I retired in October of 1999. I placed a call just before midnight (EST) to friends of mine who spent their New Years eve working the EDS Y2K Help Desk... and they had a super-quiet night. All that effort paid off...
But...back to your narrative. It's good to read things quieted down, like you said they would!
Thanks for coming by, Buck.
Things got real quiet but there are a couple of things coming up.
I wish I could go back in time and have today's info in mind. I would have enjoyed myself a little bit more and relaxed.
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