Gulf Stream, off the coast of Florida

There is a strange custom among some hard-core cruisers. At exactly sunset they blow a conch shell like a trumpet for some reason. It makes a long low bellow, kind of like a foghorn. I'm not sure where this tradition started or why, but it seems like any anchorage where there are five boats, at least one of the five will be a conch-blower. Kevin and I have toyed with the idea of blasting the air horn just to get into the spirit of things. Somehow we don't think the diehards would approve. Anyway last night at our final Bahamian anchorage, our friends on "Go, Lassie, Go!" (another Manta catamaran. Great name, huh?) put an interesting twist on the conch-blowing ceremony. At sunset, Larry climbed up on the bimini top, turned to face the sun, and proceeded to play the bagpipe as the sun sank below the horizon. It was a real treat because the man can play! His wife Stephanie is from Tipperary, Ireland but as far as we can tell Larry is American, so we're not sure how he acquired his brilliant piping skills. Tell you what, though: I'll take bagpipes over conch horns any day.

Today we were up and underway by 3am. We motored for about an hour but then the wind picked up a bit so we put up the sails as well. We motored with both engines and the sails all morning across the Little Bahama Bank, trying to make a quick run to the Gulf Stream. Once we hit the Gulf Stream our speed kicked up by a knot so we shut down one of the engines to conserve fuel. By the time we got to the axis (middle) of the stream we had picked up an extra 3 knots of speed. Which is good because the wind is so light right now that the sails are nothing more than pretty decorations at this point. The sea is flat and calm, so that makes for a nice passage, too. We're headed for anywhere from St. Augustine, FL to Brunswick, GA (I think I mentioned the four inlets in a previous post) but we won't make the decision of where we'll duck in until tomorrow morning. I am on my second Coke of the day, which is a lot of caffeine for me nowadays, so I am wired and happy that the trip is going so well at this point.

We spotted a pod of pilot whales around lunchtime. They are blackish in color and slightly larger than dolphins, instead of a dolphin-type beak they have a rounded snout and a huge bump on their forehead that makes it look like they have a massive brain. I'm not sure about whether the giant cranium means that they're as smart as dolphins but when we were at Sea World a few years back, they had a pilot whale performing in the dolphin show. So they are smart enough to get an easy gig performing tricks for mackerel in front of sunburned tourists. This group swam to the right of the boat before heading away behind us. Later in the afternoon we passed a second pod also swimming southbound. Kind of cool to be able to say we've seen whales on this trip. Granted, very small whales but whales nonetheless.

Where we are:
Heading: 357 degrees magnetic
Lat: N 28 19.648'
Long: W 79 43.945'
(Of course the lat/long have changed just since I've written this, since we are speeding along merrily at 9.5 knots)