Off to Brazil!

Monday night February 7,

Tuesday February 8- Day 1, departed St Helena with Ohana and Lazy Lightning (they are heading to Ascension Island) at 7am. The Brazilians will depart in a few hours (they are heading home to Brazil). The wind was very light, it was a motor sailing kind of day. Early evening, I baked a banana bread for breakfast.

Dan and I decided to have a daily trivia question for Ohana. There are 11 people onboard, 6 are children ages 5,7,10,12,14 and 16. All the kids are girls except the 10 year old. Today’s question was how many cornrows did Meche have in her hair? She had them added in South Africa. Everyone guessed a number then they were counted. The answer was 65.

Wednesday February 9 – Day 2, Happy Birthday Dylan! Total nautical miles traveled, 143. We will have light air for the next few days. Typically there is high pressure known as the St. Helena high that would generate wind for us. But, there is a massive low with a cyclone in the Indian Ocean near South Africa, sucking all the power out of the high.

Today’s trivia question, name 5 of the requirements on a US documented vessel, boats our sizes, 40-65ft. (Although the family is from Argentina, Ohana is a US registered boat) Most had 4 of 5 correct. Answer:

• Registration and numbers
• personal flotation devices
• visual distress signal
• fire extinguishers
• sound producing device
• navigation lights, placards
• marine sanitation device
• navigation rules

Tonight for the first time I saw the “Green Flash that is sometimes seen due to the bending of the light in the atmosphere at sunset or sunrise on the ocean, pretty spectacular! This was only the second time this was observed this on Trance, Dan has seen them both.

Thursday February 10 – Day 3, Total nautical miles traveled 288, 145 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Today’s trivia questions were all about St Helena. Most questions were related to what was learned on the tour we took with Aaron, Ohana did the same tour several days after us. We all remembered a lot! Thanks Aaron!

• Endemic Bird: wirebird
• Where did the Flax come from: New Zealand
• Name the four giant tortoises: Jonathan, David, Fred, Emma
• Famous Sailors who visited the island: Joshua Slokum, Cook, Bligh, Captain Dan
• 8 sunken ships in Jamestown harbor, what ship was sunk by a torpedo, how many survived? Darkdale, 2 people survived
• Three sources of electrical energy: wind, solar, diesel generators
• Number of steps in the ladder: 699
• Why did Captain Cook plant and spread cactus around the island? For Vitamin C from the fruit to prevent scurvy
• What is planted in the Millennium Forest: gum wood trees
• What do Whale sharks eat: Plankton, small fish, squid, not people

Friday February 11 – Day 4, total nautical miles traveled 430, 142 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Trivia questions of the day are all about the Winter Olympics:

• What events are on ice? Curling, speed skating, figure skating, luge, hockey, bobsled and skeleton.
• Maximum number of ice hockey player on the ice? 12.
• In what sport does a person perform a triple lutz? Figure skating.
• In what sport are competitors moving the fastest? Alpine skiing.
• What Caribbean Island has a bobsled team? Jamaica.
• In what country were the first Olympics held? France in 1924.
• What city has hosted both Summer and Winter Olympics? Beijing.

The clocks were turned back one hour we are now GMT-1, 1:13pm here, 9:13am in Philadelphia.

Saturday February 12 – Day 5, total nautical miles traveled 571, 141 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

We are developing The TRANCE Moca (like Starbucks) recipe: coffee or instant coffee, hot chocolate pack, at least two coffee creamers or heavy cream or powdered milk, sugar or sweetener of choice, mix (shaken… not stirred) with enough water and ice to serve two.

Trivia of the day, clouds.

Three ways to classify clouds:

Classify by Shape

Flat Clouds – called “Stratus”, or ends with “-stratus”, or begins with the shape prefix “Strato-

Puffy Clouds, like cotton balls or cauliflower – “Cumulus”, or ends with “-cumulus”, or begins with the shape prefix “Cumulo-“

Classify by Height

High Clouds: Called “Cirrus” or begins with the height prefix “Cirro-“ : ice particles, thin, transparent, sun and moonlight passes through

Medium Level Clouds: Begins with the height prefix “Alto-“ : water droplets, thicker, light might pass through

Low Clouds: Have no height prefix: dense, water particles or dense fog, minimal light passes through.

Classify by Rain or Precipitation Prodiction

(Drizzle, Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail) Ends with “-nimbus”, or begins with the prefix “Nimbo-“

Ten basic types of clouds:

• Cirrus – wispy, mare’s horse tail, often a warm front is approaching , arriving in a day or two, maybe with rain
• Cirrostratus – continuous thin sheet, halo around sun & moon
• Cirrocumulus – puffy, thin
• Altostratus – grayish bluish veil sheet, light may passes through or shadow
• Altocumulus – gray veil sheet, yet puffy bottoms, sides, tops, light might pass through or shadow
• Cumulus – Individual dense puffy clouds, shadows, imagine figures and shapes.
• Stratus – Completely or almost completely covered sky, dense. Grey dark flat bottoms, minimal light
• Stratocumulus – More numerous, linked puffy clouds with gray and flat bottoms
• Nimbostratus – Like Stratus with a higher top, completely or almost completely covered sky, dense. Grey dark flat bottoms, minimal or no light.
• Cumulonimbus – Cumulus clouds that produce precipitation, grow into tall sometimes huge “thunder clouds” by convection, anvil shaped, thunder, lightning, wind, “Danger Clouds”.

Sunday February 13 – Day 6, Are you ready for some football? It’s Super Bowl Sunday, But first pancakes for breakfast!

Total nautical miles traveled nautical 711, 140 miles travel in the past 24 hours.

*Sourdough Notes* started a Belle loaf this morning, the levain grew overnight, should be able to bake it late afternoon. Before the bread is baked there are a few “nice” bananas to be made into banana bread.

With the apparent wind angle around 160, the spinnaker was deployed. True wind is 10-14, we’re cruising at 6.5 -7.2knots.

Today’s trivia, The Super Bowl! Ohana said they studied overnight by watching the movie “The Blindside”. American football was compared to soccer and rugby. The differences in the fields, ball, players on the field and scoring objectives. They had many great questions about the game as well as answering our questions to them. Super Bowl activities like parties, food, halftime entertainment, singing of the National Anthem and TV commercials were also on topic. After the conversation was complete, they said we were next! They will ask us questions tomorrow about Latin America, not sure how well we will do! 😶

Late afternoon the banana bread and Belle loaf were baked, just in time to start dinner, Buffalo chicken wraps.

Monday February 14 – ❤️ Day 7, total nautical miles traveled 844, 133 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.

Last night was the first time we flew the spinnaker all night. The moon was nearly full, the seas were calm with 6-8knots of steady wind. This morning we jibed the spinnaker. With the cutter rig, this process has many steps. The sail gets doused, pole returned to the mast to dip around staysail boom, then reattach sheets and guys, raise the pole, jibe the main, raise the spinnaker. Somewhere during this process the sail snagged on something causing a not so nice tear. The sail was dropped, and bagged, Genoa deployed wing on wing using the pole, staysail was also deployed and winged out.

Trivia of the day, Team Ohana asked us questions about Latin America. We even got some questions right, it was a fun test. Always good to learn something new.

Tuesday February 15 – Day 8, total nautical miles traveled 972, 128 nautical miles travel in the past 24 hours.This morning, Ohana is 15 miles ahead of us. With us not being able to use our spinnaker, and they have a huge parachute spinnaker, the distance between us will only continue to increase. Today’s matinee “The Spy” starring Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law. For dinner grilling tuna steaks with mashed potatoes.

Two birds came along for the ride at night, resting upon the solar panels.