August 2nd, 2021
Half Way!
Greeting from Sirena!!
It has been another couple days of sailing in wonderful weather. We've traveled over 1500nm so far, and are approximately half way to Catalina! We really have been blessed with good weather this past week. Yesterday morning we put the spinnaker up, and have been flying ever since! Kite is in great shape, which we are happy about. Been moving along about 6 knots with just 8-10 knots of wind. Seas were pretty flat this morning, not much swell. We may continue to fly the spinnaker tonight as well, pending wind and sea state. As we continue to clock around the edge of the high, we are seeing more and more trash unfortunately. Most of which today has been styrofoam, pieces of different shapes and sizes. No nets today or yesterday, so that's good.
These past few days have given us some nice down time. We've both been chillling back and reading books throughout the day. I have been able to do lots of journaling and coloring. Yep, I have a cool Hawaiian coloring book with nifty designs and animals in it. Coloring on the boat has proven to be a bit of a challenge! Who says I need to stay within the lines? lol. We also have been watching an addicting tv series called Black Sails. And yesterday we watched my favorite disney movie Moana! A girl traveling across the ocean, what's not to love?
Yesterday Greg caught a 35lb tuna!! Biggest fish he has ever caught on this boat. Greg pulled him right in and onboard like a pro! Way too big a fish for us, so he went back into the sea. Then today we had a double tuna hookup! Kept one, let one go. Fishing has been pretty incredible this trip. 9 fish so far! We have 2 handlines with lures trailing a little over a boat and a half length behind us, and it's working great. It's nice having to pull in only about 60 feet of line!
Tonight is sushi for dinner! Tomorrow's menus is a cheesy chicken dish, instantpot style! Thrown everything in, close the lid, and walk away. It's great. Well, on a boat you have to strap down the pot before walking away, lol. Yesterday we had chicken tacos for dinner, and yummy french toast with italian sausage and extra maple syrup for breakfast. And last night's watch consisted of coffee and chocolate. M&M's are the best on a night watch. Also cheezits and famous amos cookies. And soup. And Greg has super hot and spicy soup. He ground up some whole thai peppers in the coffee grinder to make pepper flakes a couple days ago. Spicy! Add a little of those flakes to your food for one heck of a kick. We also snack on popcorn almost every afternoon. But not just any kind of popcorn! Greg pours hot chilli sauce into the oil right into the pan, before adding the popcorn. Creates spicy fluffy popcorn, it's so good!! While we snack on popcorn we've been playing backgammon. I was kicking Greg's butt for a while, but now he's back to kicking mine. Apparently my beginners luck has run out!
Some other news is that our friends Jamie and Jon on Northern Star arrived safely in San Francisco this past weekend! Yay! Great job to Jamie and his crew. It has been great communicating with them while we have both been on the water. And Jamie offered to continue to help out by being our shore support, very nice of him.
That's about it for now!
Hugs,
Greg and Toni