Message in a Bottle

Our friend Brian "Candles" Candler, who was a groomsmen in our wedding, has been sailing the Pacific on his girlfriend Bilqis' father's yacht. His emails read like excerpts from the whaling logs I had to read in college! Very exciting, particularly for us nine-to-fivers plugging away at the daily grind. And for the kids, grab your Rand McNally and trace Brian's trip using the coordinates below. Enjoy! Or rather, Ahoy!


Hello again from the south pacific,

Finally, a bit of excitement. Khayyam dropped a lure in when he saw we were heading straight for a large group of birds getting excited over something at the surface. Obviously some action, and action means fish. But of course we weren't the first besides the birds to arrive at the party. As soon as we came level with the birds we saw sharks in the water. A big group of them going mad over the school of fish that were just a bit ahead of them. Not huge ones, 6-8 feet brown ones, big enough. Khayyam tried to get his lure in before it was hit but no good, a fish grabbed it as soon as he went for it. And I'll bet there's nothing more fun for a shark than a good chase. We watched the fin just trailing the fish on the end of the line for a couple of seconds before, with a huge lunge and a splash the shark grabbed the fish and dived down and the line just snapped clean. Whole thing only lasted a minute but again, haven't seen anything but birds and water. Doesn't take much to get us out on deck in a hurry.

After four days we've gone about 550 nautical miles. Only 1000 left till Thursday Island! For anyone who wants to know, we're doing the 3 watch rotation, 4h daylight, 3h night and I'm on watch with Vikki. She's been swabbing the deck with me at backgammon. Otherwise alls just checking George(the autopilot) is ok, giving him a rest every now and then and scanning the horizon for ships that we know aren't there.

Alright, if it keeps up like this I won't keep giving you guys updates until something really interesting happens. I mean, I could go on and on about how beautiful it is in the middle of the ocean even when it's overcast, but let's be honest, I'm no Henry Thoreau. I'll just say, it's stunning beauty out here, it's hard not to see it when you're surrounded by unfiltered nature in so many different conditions. Ok, enough waxing on from me.

Love,
Brian

And when I say, just about there, I mean in about 2 nm John and Vikki will have reached the longitude they started this whole around the world trip from 2 and a half years ago. I think John's looking a bit dizzy.

I wonder sometimes how this boat stays together. John discovered in the night that the bolt keeping the boom connected to the mast at was sheared right through. I guess it inspires a little confidence that the bolt seemed to have been broken for a while and the boom hadn't fallen down yet, but still...important bit of steel at that.

Saw two tankers night before last passed us to stbd. Found out that I still can't tell that the light that should be green is actually green. I guess our arguments over what color my clothes are still haven't come to an end.

Just came off watch and I've finally beaten Vikki at backgammon. Ah, the little moments. Yesterday morning she told me that I was going to beat her at backgammon and that we were going to see a whale! Well I'll tell you I was looking forward to our watch yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't win, so of course we couldn't see a whale. It's a real bummer, cause and effect.

As per request:
We left Port Vila, Vanuatu(approx 17 45' S, 168 17' E) six days ago. Current location is 14 18' S, 153 11' E. If your interested, we're heading for Raine Island Entrance(11 35'S, 144 0'E), one of the easier to navigate entrances to the Barrier Reef. We have to arrive at the entrance at daybreak so we have a good full day to be able to see the reefs. Anyway, just an fyi.

Thanks for all the replies everybody. I'm gonna go ask Vikki if she'll teach me the proper way to attach a mousing line. And maybe I'll practice my whipping. You see how fun sailing can be!

Cheers,
Brian

We miss ya Bri Guy. Stay safe out there, and we hope to see you and Bilqis this Christmas.