Tuesday 10:30 to Wednesday 10:30, mid-Atlantic
Day 3 complete — another 147 nm in the wake, the exact same run as yesterday. The boat has found her metronome and she's not interested in changing tempo.
If yesterday felt empty, today the ocean doubled down. No traffic at all — nothing by eye, nothing on AIS, nothing on radar. We caught a couple of broken words from a ship somewhere over the radio, the verbal equivalent of a distant porch light, and that was our entire contact with the rest of humanity. We saw exactly one bird the whole day. The fishing lines went out and came back just as empty as they went. The water's genuinely warm now — we saw it as high as 82.9°F — but warm water alone doesn't make a fishery. This stretch really is the desert of the ocean: not much out here for man or creature.
On the boat side it was pure routine, which is the highest compliment I can pay a day at sea. Topped off the water tanks again, transferred some fuel, walked the engine room — temps, strainer, bilge, all where they should be. No surprises, just the way we like it.
And then the day handed us a gift. Beautiful sun, light winds, and that impossibly blue water staring at us all afternoon until we cracked. We pulled the throttle back, stopped the boat, and went swimming — over 300 nautical miles from the nearest land, in 82-degree water so blue it doesn't look real. There's no feeling quite like floating in water that's two and a half miles deep with your home bobbing gently beside you. The kids will remember that one for the rest of their lives. So will I.
It's Tuesday, and in this family Tuesday is sacred. The Sea of Cortez is some of our favorite cruising on Earth, so Mexico gets the nod almost every week: Taco Tuesday, even 300 miles offshore. We did it right — homemade pico de gallo, tortilla chips, Spanish rice, and chicken tacos all around. Morale: fully restored.
Nightfall was finally kind to us. After two lumpy evenings, we got calm winds and easy seas the whole night through. Everyone slept.
Now for the part we're watching closely: there's a blow forecast for tomorrow afternoon and into Thursday. The good news is the prediction has been softening over the last 24 hours, and we're hoping that trend holds before it reaches us — or, more honestly, before we reach it. Either way, we'll be ready.
Follow the dot: trackmywake.com/wake/next-chapter.
— Chris & the crew of Next Chapter