June 15, 2011 Day 11 "Gulf Crossing"

Happy Birthday Uncle Roger!

We welcomed another beautiful Sunny day out on the Gulf of Mexico!

With Randy at the helm at 0915 hr, the winds were at 12 knots-waves 2 to 4'

He logged that the water color has turned from the brilliant turquoise color

to that of the "Mississippi Mud". Well it makes sense as we are now just south of the Mississippi Delta.

Dean can sleep anywhere!

We had "Brunch" today about 1000 hr - Bacon, Eggs, and Toast. 

At noon, Randy started the engine. We needed to charge the batteries and make better time. The "rule" is  ...if you are traveling under 5 knots - on comes the engine.

Weather: Temp in the high 80's and becoming partly cloudy.

Wind W/NW at 14 knots ~ Waves 3-4' confused.

We are all starting to feel wore down and tired. I think the heat and lack of a good solid nights sleep is getting to all of us. And we are only just a little over half way there!

Dad is still not feeling well. I'm sure he has been running a fever. He is exhausted...every time he lays down he starts to cough and has to sit up. His appetite isn't the usual either. We are all worried about him altho he insists he is fine, that it's just a sore throat and cough. I think he has pneumonia!

We see a bunch of rigs out here on the horizon. Way too many to count!

I'm tellin' ya this boy CAN sleep anywhere!!
And he does!!

Actually I can't pick on my Hubby...he isn't the only one snoozing all the time. We are all napping now as much as we can. We're becoming sleep deprived!

But Captain Rob smiles even when he's tired!

Cuz he is doing what he loves best!

~Sailing~

Enjoying a smooth ride!

At 1600 hr we are still motor/sailing along at about 5.1 knots. The wind is at 14-15 knots. We are waiting for it to clock around to the SW. According to Rob's WeatherFax that should happen in a half hour or so. Waves 1-2'....Good ride!!

For our supper I made a pot of Seafood Jambalaya.

During dinner cleanup we ran out of water so Dean started the generator and preceded to make water with our watermaker. The watermaker would not start and after several tries, my discouraged, tired, and upset husband gave up. The seas were getting alittle bit bouncy and he wasn't totally positive that we could operate the water maker while underway. (Something we would need to double check with John when we talk to him next.) He couldn't figure out the reason it wouldn't make water and he was pretty frustrated. Especially since we still had at least 2 1/2 days left to go. We had 1 gallon of water sitting on the counter and we were running low on drinking water in the fridge. Dad needed as many fluids as I could get down him so that was another big concern. Also, we all needed to rinse off from the heat and salty sea air. 

Lessons Learned:

Have more jugs of reserve water stowed.

Plan to make water when the 1st tank is empty!

Another project on Dean's list of "Things to Do"....find problem with Watermaker & reason why we went through as much water as we did in such a short period of time.

And we ready ourselves for another long night...........