June 8, 2002

All is going very well aboard "Nordhavn". I am now on my midnight watch. We have had a favorable current for most of the day...yesterday's weather was mostly overcast with several rain showers. These weren't really squalls as there was very little wind associated with the cells. Right now the winds are blowing offshore at 16.7 true. Wave height is about one to two feet, swells are about four feet very far apart and coming from astern. Outside temp is 79 degrees and not too humid. I don't want to jinx our good fortune so I won't dwell on this.

Everyone has told of their dinners while aboard and while I was in the office reading about this, I mostly said that no one may really care that much. But after our dinner earlier this evening, I have to elaborate, and I now fully understand my previous ATW crew members compulsion to do so. Thanks to the Crew #4s fishing abilities (Kevin) we had remaining Mahi Mahi. Courtney, our Yachting Magazine guest asked me how I personally would cook it, she then said how she would do it. We ended up sharing ideas and the end result was this. First we chopped garlic, onions and capers in a small amount of olive oil, then Courtney made a wonderful marinade for the fish while browning the garlic, etc... Then we baked the fish with the browned ingredients, at about half time of baking we removed the fish and added a reduced salsa to the top and returned to the oven to finish. Absolutely wonderful!

The day seemed to go by rather quickly. The view from our starboard side today was mostly of long beautiful sandy beaches rimmed with thick groves of palm trees and mountains in the back ground. Absolutely stunning. For several hours we were just a few miles away from the coastline. We are on a point to point course heading for Manzanillo, our first stop. Our plans are to head into the famous Las Hadas Marina and Hotel - mainly to give Courtney writing material. This is the hotel made famous by the movie "10" starring the now recently passed Dudley Moore and Bo Derrick. We did put out a fishing line today and hooked up on two mackerels. No luck in catching good eating fish, so we'll try again today. While getting the poles out I made a wonderful discovery, a guitar! I played until my fingers became to sore to strum another cord.

No targets are showing on the radar which is set on the 18 mile radius setting. I do see lights to a city that may be called Bahia De Petacalco well off to starboard. "Nordhavn" continues on her course home without any complaint whatsoever!

Back to On Board Commentary