Crossing Log Entry 9: Halfway to paradise

Long days out on the open ocean but still in great spirits, the crossing crew check in with some stories from their last few days at sea…

crossing log

captain Katie 10/28 @ 1100 hours

Well here we are - day 10 has officially wrapped up and we all have a sense that we are half way there! Although I will say, we are hoping that once we pass through the ITCZ one last time and hit the trades, we may pick up speed and shorten the length of the second half of our voyage.  As of this afternoon, our mileage was 2,472 miles traveled.  I like to track our progress via the cities we pass in longitude - today we passed San Diaaago (said in Will Ferrell’s voice from Anchorman, of course).  One more day and we should pass California entirely.

Our life at sea has been fairly uneventful so far (and yes, I am well aware this is a very good thing)! On day 9, we did get a quick visit from a few dolphins, but aside from them, our only wildlife encounters so far have been malolo (flying fish), the boobies that hunt them, and the occasional squid that somehow keep propelling themselves up onto the decks of our Trilogy 4.  

To pass the time, we often try our hand at some fishing, and lucky us, we were able to catch a mahi the other day! With limited “fresh” food options at this point in our journey, we have been trying to make every meal with this catch so it wouldn’t go to waste.  So far, that has included: mahi tacos, mahi tacos, mahi burritos, and more mahi tacos.  To the right is a photo of what a Mahi Mahi fish typically looks like (this wasn’t ours, but is good for reference - thanks to Pinterest for the photo).

Aside from fishing & cooking, we have been entertaining ourselves with the various games and books that each of us packed along. An ongoing joke onboard has been my relentless requests to play dominoes... but alas, despite my prompting every day (for four days now), we haven’t yet seemed to “find the time” to play.  Despite my continued domino fail, in a sudden stroke of collective social-ness, Shaw did get us all to play Rummy 500.  That lasted for an hour or so until Kai retreated to his standard seclusion of watching How I Met Your Mother, while laughing out loud to himself. 

During our journey, a common topic that we find ourselves chatting about are the ways to accurately describe this ocean crossing experience to our friends & family upon our return. Shaw came up with the following description: “Hey guys, once we get back, we should all fly to California, rent a car, drive that car to Halifax Nova Scotia, and back again, but only drive 11 MPH, and never get out of the car the whole time.” In all honesty… that’s VERY accurate. :) We’ve also described our sleeping situation being similar to sleeping in an elevator on steroids - trying to maintain a state of sleep while fluctuating between being suspended in the air and falling, hard, back into our bunks. Denver has assured us that this is all normal and, in fact, a much more comfortable crossing than most.  Then he distracted us by creating an album of videos and pictures of his adorable dogs. Smart guy. ;)

Despite the jokes about our “new normal” way of life, it has been an amazing experience so far and this voyage has already taught us a lot.  We are looking forward to coming home and getting to enjoy and share Trilogy’s newest member of the fleet! Until next time…

Edited by: Cyndie Ellis