Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 3: It's Like a Lake Out Here, or "Out Damn Spot!"

Good morning everyone. We've been motoring since 11:30 last night. Just enough breeze to give us one knot extra, but not enough to sail on. The air temperature is a balmy 76 degrees. The swell is gone; just long faint ripples. When the sun came up this morning, I noticed something strange on the deck (see the photo). I did not recognize it, so I pointed it out to Bill. He acknowledged that it was a mysterious and unexplained scientific anomaly. So, we are appealing to you, our readers, to respond if you have any ideas (real or imaginary) about what it is. There are dozens of these on the deck, some as small as an quarter, several as big as Bill's hand. We have already considered, and discarded, the idea that it came from the Gulf oil spill. It does sorta have a black, tarry look to it. Maybe an albatross on his way back from the Gulf, etc. Bill also mentioned that the magazine "New Scientist" accepts this kind of puzzle for its readers. If anyone would like to submit it, please feel free. In other news, completely unrelated I assure you, we are learning to eat liquid peanut butter. Instead of a knife, you have to use a spoon to spread it. And a little goes a long way. It's Kirkland Organic "Creamy" Peanut Butter, and it tastes great, and we think it's fully homogenized and mixed, but it still comes out of the jar, well, creamy, and it kinda goes everywhere. Good thing we're wearing foulie bottoms. That's all for now. Please have a look at our new tracking site: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=CIRRUS10, and please send us news from home. The easiest way is to write a comment on this blog entry and include all your latest news. Your comments come to us as email messages over our shortwave radio. Very slow, but effective in the middle of the ocean. Fair winds; ~~Chris
Position at 0720 HST: 25d07.795N, 156d51.522W

4 comments:

  1. Oh, I know what it is. My doctor showed it to me only recently, and it is called a Rorschach test. In this case it shows three naked women on a sofa!

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  2. Who is commenting under the name "Cirrus"?

    Rick

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  3. In ref to the spots; is there any chance this is residue coming off the oil spill stains on the "Dalmatian Jib"? The jib got its name from the several large black oil spots it received while sitting in Bill's car next to a plastic cannister full of recently changed and well used engine oil. However hard we scrubbed we could not remove the large oil spots. Perhaps now with long exposure to seawater and the scrubbing action of the big waves its started to leech out.

    Your recent pictures are wonderful, the sun at the horizon, the the tired yet relaxed crew having fun. . .

    Rick

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  4. Joe and Olivia from the OAT classJune 14, 2010 at 10:48 PM

    Sounds like a wild ride. Following your blog is almost as good as being there in person. Hope things calm down for your final few days.
    Have fun Bill.

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