121 Miles

At Sea
N 40 05 W 072 37

We made 121 nautical miles (140 statue miles, 224 clicks), in the past 24 hours. That's a good day. Anything more than 100 miles per day is good. The weather has been fine, and aside from my error in judgment, the sailing has been pleasant.

My error was that I decided to sail with main and jib through the night, then switch to spinnaker in the morning. That proved to be wrong. First, she was too hard to steer with the wind behind us and with the main up. Therefore, around midnight, I took down the main. That improved things some, but she was still hard to steer. Worse, there was a swell from Hurricane Bertha coming at us from the starboard quarter. That made us roll wildly. Neither Libby nor I managed any sleep during our off
hours because we had to hang on so much. Finally, in the morning, I took down the jib, put up the spinnaker, and changed course to put the wind and the swells directly behind us. That has been more comfortable.

The VHF radio reception out here is extra good for some unknown reason. We are hearing all the Coast Guard traffic from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Mystic Seaport Connecticut. Usually, it is just an annoyance. A warning to keep a sharp eye out for some hazard 1,000 miles away is not very helpful. We did hear one drama though.

A dive boat in Delaware Bay called in an emergency. One of the divers surfaced unconscious, with no pulse and no breathing. The captain went to work with CPR, while an inexperienced diver called the Coast Guard. Good news. In a few minutes, they reported that the victim had a pulse and was breathing on her own. Five minutes later she was sitting up. The Coast Guard send a medivac helicopter to get her anyhow. I'm sure that was just a precaution, and I'm also sure that the captain of that dive
boat saved that woman's life. Hear hear for cool heads and for CPR training.