Life At Sea: Groundhog Day or The Shining? (Sailing Across The Pacific)

Welcome to life at sea, where the vast time and views are uninterrupted. We’re nearing the final stretch of our journey and the itch is starting.

Spirits are high as our spinnaker weather returns and all seems well adjusted. Until day twenty.  We’re about 455 hours in and just over 2,866 nautical miles sailed, when all the sudden, we go from Bill Murray to Jack Nicholson.

Now, I don’t know about you but going from Groundhog Day to The Shining took me by surprise.  I couldn’t wrap my head around the comparison of our life at sea to The Shining (then again, this is the same man that tried to compare sailing across an ocean to walking on the moon).  I thought, “oh great, now I’m out to sea with Kubrick, this is going great?”.

If it wasn’t for the fact he’s such a snuggle bunny, I might have been concerned about that comparison.  Or, maybe he thinks I am the Jack Nicholson in this scenario?  Now that is an interesting question, which one of us would loose our marbles first?

With a slight are-you-out-of-your-mind voice, I requested an explanation.

His response, “It’s the isolation.  Groundhog Day was normal life with lots of people, The Shining was at an isolated Hotel.  Feels more similar.”

Hmmm…I’m still not with you.

Romantic Drama vs Physiological Horror, I guess somethings (or should I say people) just aren’t meant to be understood.  Sail on Kubrick.  Just don’t go spouting redrum while I am sleeping.

How About That New Camera!

We’ve been slowly working out good spots on the boat to put action cams.  Which is trickier than you might imagine.  With sails and lines being the primary accessories, there are very few “safe” (or unobstructed) spots for cameras.  Since it’s just the two of us, most of the time, it’s nice to have a couple of sturdy cameras to capture the action when it happens.  Plus, as you have seen, tripods don’t always work so well on a boat.  Everyone keeps having mini heart attacks thinking we’ve capsized…when it’s just an un-manned camera taking a plunge.

Go Pro and Sony mostly rule the market when it comes to quality action cams but this Virb is proving to be a solid choice!  The quality is much better than we expected and all the built in data is just ridiculously cool.  There are settings for boats, planes, cycling, boarding, mountain biking and pretty much any sport there is.  We’re pretty stoked about it and hope you like the extra data too.  It feels way more interesting to see the data in the actual scene instead of listening to us drone on about knots, angles and sea state.

If you want one for yourself…

• Amazon: https://amzn.to/2wX8HCq
• B&H Photo:  https://bhpho.to/2MaGnBq

Bumfuzzle

Jason mentioned Bumfuzzle, which is a book about a couple taking off to sail around the world with no experience. Sound familiar? You can snag a copy for free here: https://amzn.to/2Nt1ovQ We started following the blog Bumfuzzle around 9 years ago (shesh time files) and quickly picked up their book when it launched. We loved the honesty, adventure and humor. Over the years the Bums (Pat and Ali) have become friends and are still a great source of inspiration for us.

Like What You See?

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Gear Used In This Video

• In The Galley – Click on the Kitchen Faves tab for all my faves: gonewiththewynns.com/store
• Working Out – Everything we have for staying fit while sailing: https://www.gonewiththewynns.com/product/exercise-staying-fit
• Entertainment at Sea – Kindle: http://amzn.to/2mpGQ9K  Audiobooks and podcasts are The Best on passage.  Currently listening to Lost City of Z which has us wanting to go back to South America and the Amazon!
• Camera Gear – All Our Camera/Computer Gear is Listed Here: gonewiththewynns.com/camera-gear-review-2017
• Sailing Specific Gear
  • Quatix 5 Watches: gonewiththewynns.com/product/quatix-5-marine-watch 
  • Chartplotter: Garmin 7612xsv Multi-touch
  • Tracking & Texting: Garmin InReach: gonewiththewynns.com/product/inreach-satellite-communication-and-tracking 
  • iPad Mount at Helm: http://amzn.to/2fT84PG  Using iPad Pro: http://amzn.to/2d9Oopf   
    • With These Sailing/Navigation/Weather Apps:
      • iNavx: http://bit.ly/2vGgC51
      • Active Captain: http://bit.ly/active_captain
      • Texting, Email & Weather:  Iridium Go and Predict Wind: bit.ly/PredictWindIridium

Sailing Report

We use our Garmin InReach to track our sail and send updates to family & Patreons.  We take a screen capture every day at 5:30pm, because that marks another 24hrs logged for our sail across the Pacific.  It’s a fun way to follow along in real time and hear what’s happening on board.  This video covers May 10 – 13, 2018.  Here is the screen capture from May 13th.  The little dots share real-time trip info and the little message pop-up is us writing to the people following along from home.