–Every once in a while I am rewarded for a good habit. But I don’t have many, so the rewards don’t come often. Anyway, one of my habits during a passage is my daily random walk. Basically I wander around the boat looking at things. Examining fittings, looking under floorboards, at the engine, mast, whatever. Is it a random exercise, designed to find things I might normally miss.
Yesterday I caught a good one. The bolt holding the boom to the gooseneck had worked itself loose, and the nut was hanging on by only a few threads. If this had let go, the boom would no longer be attached to the mast, and likely boom, mast and sail damage would result. So I was very happy to have noticed it and fixed it.
The day was so nice and sunny and pleasant, with light beam winds and an easy following sea, I put the spinnaker up, then decided to sit on the back porch and dangle my feet in the water for a while. I was surprised at how warm the water is! I thought I would have to get a bit farther north to find warm water, but its already a nice 75 degrees. So if I get another hour of no wind sometime, I’m going swimming.
3/17 8am 30.44S 46.59W 648nm gone, 4726nm to go