I spent the morning slithering aft on the quarter berths tightening nuts on the bolts for the Jordan drogue attachment plates. It all went about as expected. One hole didn’t quite line up because as I later realized I had turned the backing plate top to bottom. One nut fell into an almost inaccessible crevice in the bilge and took a half hour to retrieve using a hack saw blade and a metal file as chopsticks.
However we are now plated.
And my back is feeling it.
Here is a view that puts the plate in perspective.
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From Larry on the west coast came this photo of a frozen wave,
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From James in eastern mountains comes this link to a computer generated possible track of the man who recently claimed to have drifted for more than a year from near Mexico 6,000 miles, more or less, to the Marshall Islands.
I know the currents and understand the drift. What surprises me is that he caught enough food and water to stay alive so long.
When I was adrift for two weeks I only caught one passing coconut.
James also send me an album, Wild New Zealand, of bird calls. Track 18 is: Gannet Colony at the end of Farewell Spit. Now GANNET can sound like a gannet.
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From Alan comes a link to a Wired article that provides some interesting information about Saildrone.
I think it is going to get crowded out there.
These things should be provided with some sort of collision avoidance system.
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I thank them all, and Ron in New Zealand who says GANNET looks yare, which his father said can be applied to boats, ladies and fine drink.
GANNET is pleased.
