Murre is away!

Time: 0236 GMT (7pm Pacific)
Position: 22.10.868N by 110.25.123W
Wind: West at 8 to 10 knots
Speed: 4.5 knots
Course: 200t (true)
Temp: 70 degrees

We are close hauled and sliding easily over a gently lolling sea. Cloud has filled in from the west, cumulus cloud, ocean cloud unlike any I’ve seen these last six months of desert cruising, and already there is a heavy dew on the sails. Directly overhead, stars. No moon and to the east the night is so dark I cannot make out where sea ends and sky begins. Dark and quite. Water tinkles along Murre’s side. Her propeller makes a low whirring sound as it turns (I can’t figure out how to stop it). One of my food hammocks bangs softly against a bulkhead slowly pulverizing my three bags of tortilla chips. But other than that, a deep stillness.

I have a reef in the mizzen only to keep its wind from interfering with Molly, the wind vane, and have been on this course and with this set of sail since taking leave of Cabo Falso, since pouring out into an empty sea, at ten o’clock this morning. Behind Baja’s hills, flat calm, and the moment we came out from the lee, this west wind to sweep us away. We are already more than 50 miles offshore.

First night at sea. The thought of it makes me queasy.

Wind is freshening. I will take in the mizzen.