We enjoyed a big delicious lunch of tuna sashimi over rice. Fish doesn't get any fresher than this, unless you count the sashimi Renee and I snacked on while we were preparing the tuna right after catching it. I substituted a chayote squash sliced really thin for the traditional daikon radish that usually accompanies sashimi. It is crunchy and has hints of similar flavors. I was unfamiliar with chayote (I think I have spelling right) squashes until this trip. I have discovered that they keep very well and are versatile. I've substituted them in place of "regular" squashes and cucumbers, roasted them, stir-fried them, had them raw. Highly recommended.
We are sailing on a dark blue sea under a light blue sky with hazy clouds to the south, clear to the north. The wind is blowing a little over 10 knots and we're steadily moving at a bit more than half that speed with moderate swells to our stern. It's nice and warm out and we're both taking catnaps to prepare for another night.
We haven't turned the engine on all day...yay! We might be forced to though, but not due to lack of wind. As the winter solstice approaches, the sun isn't high in the sky for long, which limits how much power the solar panels can generate. We're conserving power by only running one chartplotter, timed radar transmissions at night, turning up the freezer temperature and not charging gadgets. Despite these measures, at 15:00 the batteries are only 85% charged, which probably won't be enough to last the night and not draw them down below my 70% limit. I try to stick to that limit because it prolongs the life of our (expensive) battery bank tremendously. The wind is supposed to die down after midnight, so we'll wait as long as we can.
About 150 nm done, 85 to go. We're right on schedule.
