at sea.
38°58' N
1°15'E
just heard back from the coast guard relay. there was a mayday call on the VHF, the windsurfer in distress is now okay. all it initially said was 'requiring immediate assistance,' and it was mostly in spanish and i think some french. they all talk so fast.
yesterday afternoon's watch was nuts. i got the 'reefing the main' primer and that was all informative, gives me some ideas about the lightning main. not that we'll necessarily be using the lightning all that much after or perhaps even during this coming season. i may inquire as to the viability of keeping it somewhere for folks to use. hard to deal with a 1000 pound boat that is 20' long, etc. when you don't live in a place with a yard.
first lightning storm at sea. we had hail. some crazy wind shifts. i think it was sail change after sail change. good practice. jenny and i traded hats. she's now got the korean war hemet liner, which was a 'police action' and in any case it's somewhat unlikely that velcro had been invented by that point in history. funny how it had never really occurred to me that the velcro makes that particular headgear a bit more modern than i had initially supposed. my new châpeau is a red northface thingy almost identical (save for the colour.. and it's gore-tex, so perhaps better material) to the hat rachael got for solstice this year. or was it chaunnakah, xmas merry merry quite contrary. i actually think it was after xmas eve that i gave that so maybe it was random gifting.
