Time 0830 local
Lat N 34° 07.2′
Lon W 72° 37.3′
Nautical miles from Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI: 1031
Nautical miles to Sandy Hook, NJ: 387

Yesterday Karen noted on the chart a DART buoy, part of the worldwide tsunami warning system, about 15 miles east of our position. Any floating object out in open water attracts fish. This one, 300 miles offshore certainly didn’t see a lot of fishing pressure, so off we when on a detour to see what we could pull up.

When we got there, there was no there, there. The buoy was missing. I had read years ago ago that the DART system suffered from chronic underfunding, I guess this is one of the results of that. So all you people along the east coast of the USA who might be expecting the government to warn you of an approaching tsunami: Surprise!

Just by way of commentary, as I have traveled around I noticed one consistent thing that separates effective governments from ineffective ones. Ineffective governments focus on popular, visible, infrastructure projects. Like big highways, public marinas–or tsunami warning systems. Then once built, ignore them and let them fall apart because maintenance is not politically visible, and it is hard! Effective governments seem to understand, if something is worth building in the first place, it should be worth keeping in working order.

A highlight of yesterday’s sail was a fish! Yes, we caught one! Now… granted he was a little small. Okay, a lot small. A jack that might have tipped the scales at a pound. Most of yesterday’s fishing consisted of a constant retrieval of lines to clear off seaweed.

We have entered the weather system that will carry us most of the way to our destination. All the weather models agree, we should jog a bit further east to avoid a large calm that is developing off the Maryland coast. Winds right now are pushing 15 knots, late tonight we expect to see close to 30, pretty much all from behind us so it should not be an uncomfortable ride