20 October - A Tragedy Avoided

1200 position 33 41S 173 29E. Days run 129 miles.

The center of this high pressure area is a boring place. There's no wind. The seas are like glass. We're not catching fish. It's been 2 days of the same as we power south. There's nothing to do as the autopilot maintains a constant heading.

We stand our watches, but in retrospect it wouldn't have mattered if we didn't. We've seen no ships and no adjustments to sails or course have been necessary.

We're staying busy reading, sleeping, telling stories, listening to music or podcasts, eating, and talking about the next meal.

Then, in a split second, the boredom turned into adrenaline when the knot securing the sun shower to the wind generator mast came undone and our warm bag of solar heated shower water fell into the sea.

There was no hesitation as the highly trained crew of Jambalaya lept into action to retrieve this piece of equipment so critical to the crew's personal hygiene. Tom pulled in the fish lines as I disengaged the autopilot, throttled back, and turned the ship around. Clay bounded up from below, grabbed the boat hook, and retrieved the floating bag of water as we passed.

The action was over almost as quickly as it started, the sun shower was back on deck, and we were once again headed for the land of the long white cloud.

John snored on in his bunk, blissfully unaware of the drama that had taken place around him.w