VIC MAUI RETURN 2018 - POST #3

Day 4 – Black Magic mini
28 d 31.2 N 154 d 04.0 W

Another perfect day on the Pacific Ocean.  We have 10 – 15 kts of breeze, just forward of the beam. The sun is up, not too hot during our morning watch. The water is deep blue, reflecting the sky. Only a few cumulus clouds on the horizon and for now no squalls in sight. Life is good.

Today we saw more flying fish, one did not make it and landed on the boat where we found him sadly too late for rescue.  We gave him a proper sea burial.

Sitting on deck, enjoying a leisurely day at sea we came up with the idea of flying a black garbage bag as a kite. First trials off the cockpit looked promising. We then decided to hoist it on a spinnaker halyard and fly it from there. This worked wonderfully and we all had a good laugh. This is our Black Magic!   Much fun. Some said it works great as a tell tail or we could use it to calibrate our wind instruments. All was tested, and wind instruments found to be accurate. 

Peter borrowed Neil’s 80s style sunglasses and looked like a rock star behind the wheel. Searching for a team name for our watch we are now the “Smoking Pacific Longtails”, name after the bird that keeps circling our mast: The White Pacific Longtail.

As the temperature increased over the morning, we came up with another game: The transom surfer. Standing on the swim grid, facing the wind while holding on to the transom. The waves lapped up our feet and calves making for a refreshing experience. Too much wind & waves to swim just now, so transom surfing was a good second best.

The good cruising life aboard Salient in the middle of the Pacific. Time for lunch and an afternoon siesta.

Salient out.