Day 7 Passage Rapa Nui bound for Puerto Montt: Porter's Favorite Passage Games

My mom was watching us play our games in the forward cabin when she suggested we describe for the blog how we pass the time. A forty-seven foot boat does not allow for very much room or exciting things, but with a little creativity, an annoying brother, and two long weeks at sea, it becomes easy to enjoy yourself. The most common activity on this passage, is a game called hippo-ball which Jack already wrote about. In addition, there are many more things.

For Jack's birthday, he got a toy called K-Nex. It is a set of little gears and shafts that you can snap together to create things. We have made cars, planes, boats, accessories, and weird creations. The instructions for building things are rarely used and we have built everything in it. Normally one of us will build a design, like a jet-ski, and the other will add little things,like torpedoes or machine guns. We play with it for the rest of the day. The next day, we take it apart and build something else.

My all time favorite passage game was invented a few nights ago when I messed with Jack. It was just barely dark out when Jack told me to follow him into our cabin. I ducked into the head,which is right outside our cabin. I sat on the closed toilet and waited in silence. Before I continue, you should understand one thing. At night, we never turn on normal lights, as they mess with the watchman's night vision. Instead, we use red lights but even they are rarely turned on, so I was quite safe from someone turning on a light to reveal my position. Three times Jack looked into the tiny head, and once, he swiped his hand near me, but he never quite saw or touched me. He must have walked by ten times and never noticed me trying not to laugh. Finally, I let out a squeak. Jack walked by a few times more before coming in and thoroughly searching and of course, he found me. For the last few nights, we have been taking turns hiding in a creative version of Hide and Seek where the seeker would look into a light to mess up his night vision and wait in our cabin for thirty seconds.

Jack's best hiding place was up on a shelf. He curled up in a size that I would not have thought possible. Jack almost fell off and caused quite a racket, allowing me to find his general position. Once, I snuck back into our cabin after Jack had left in search of me around the boat. This game has already filled many dark hours considering the fact that we only started playing it recently.

Over time, these games wear out, but just as quickly as we get bored of them, we come up with something new. Although long offshore passages are not my favorite part of sailing, these games certainly help them pass quickly. - Porter

DAY: 7 1/2 STATS

Molly had 50 knots on her watch last night! Hoping for a bit mellower tonight... All is well. Cheers - Christopher

TIME&DATE: 1900 local (2400z) TUE AUG 18 2014
FIX: 30º06.5'S 93º12.1'W
SOG&COG: 4.2 knots, ±117ºM (132ºT) - headed for Canal Chacao, just north of Isla Chiloe
WIND (True): 298ºT F4 (mostly F5-6 today)
WAVES: 2-3m waves
PRECIP: none daytime today
CLOUDS: 15% clouds at sunset
PRMSL: 1011.3mb