999

X86
Rich Carey
Wed 6 Dec 2017 09:10
The very best kind of an emergency. One for which suitable medicine was applied.

At 17:45 we crossed into the second half of the main Atlantic puddle jump. We passed mid way of the journey (in total mileage), 500 miles ago, but a good portion of that was the journey down, not across. So we waited with eyes locked on the chart plotter, until it clicked to '999' nautical's to go. Then we locked fists firmly on the afore mentioned three cans, and imbibed with mucho satisfacto.

An ocean is very small - must be. There is an environmental floating sensor called the 'Middle Atlantic Weather Buoy and Station'. It's listed on the Imray 100 Nautical Chart. These are orange, the size of a large football, and have an 18 inch stub antenna sticking out of the top. I know this, because we passed it by 10 meters, an hour before our 999 incident! It is slightly out of position (they are tethered by very long wires to concrete (I suppose)), but do tend to wander about a little, so it was a slightly off station from the lat/lon given on the Imray chart). WTF (!) , WTF (!) we all but ran it down in this giant empty place - what are the odds ...!

Anyway, back to the important stuff. Jorn pored some vodka over the side, muttering some crap about Neptune 'getting his' :-), and then we three amigos, laid into a heavy drinking session with our one can's. Jill made her's last 5 minutes, but Jorn and I were done in about 2, and that was with swigging constraint.

My amigos informed me that there are three more cans aboard, warm but ready to replace those quaffed, in the fridge. These we have decided to pillage at the first sight of land, if such every occurs, when all three of us are available. Meanwhile, back to the tea total life style.

All's well of x86, except the freshwater pump which is playing up again. I've already replaced it twice this year - darn it!

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