Night Passage

At Sea
24 46.20 N 080 50.41 W

The sky cleared up last night and the sky became beautiful.   The stars were bright and there is a meteor shower in progress with lots of bright meteors.   I was able to navigate most of the evening by pointing the bow at Sirius.  Cool.  

Now dawn approaches and we can see a big thick bank of clouds over the Gulf Stream 15 miles south of us.  Libby just relieved me.  

We have settled on watch schedules that fit Libby and I.  During the day, we stand one hour watches.  Then I watch 1600-2000, Libby takes 2000-2400 and I take 0000-0600.   The division is not exactly equal, but it seems to fit our individual capabilities best.

Out progress is better than I expected yesterday; we'll be in Marathon before noon Friday.  Cool.  The winds have been very favorable.   It seems like is is always easy to sail from Miami to Marathon but almost  always impossible to sail back.  That's because of prevailing winds in the Winter.

This morning at 0255 I texted a happy birthday greeting to Jenny. I expected her to see it in the morning. She replied immediately.   I was amazed.  Was she up?  Did I wake her with my message?   I'll have to find out.

p.s. As a matter of good seamanship, I make it a policy to avoid reading or listening to anything while on watch.  The watch need full attention and alertness.  I confess though that the Droid makes it easy to cheat.  I can pull it out, do something and finish within a minute or two.  It's  great toy.   It helps keep me from getting bored and nobbing off.