Thursday, July 3rd -- We were still powering the next morning. We also had the radar on with a guard zone to alert us if any ships were within 14 miles of us. There was a heavy fog as well and in a situation such as that, the radar is the only way to tell if a ship is closing in on us. After breakfast, I had to shut the engine down and switch fuel tanks as well as check the oil and water level in the engine. It was a good thing I checked, because the water level in the reserve tank was very low.
   Still under power when Herb's weather net came on. We were told that we could not expect any wind at least through Friday. Thank God we had taken on extra fuel when we left Bermuda. We had enough to power the rest of the way.
   Night watches were easy because the radar was doing a lot of the work for us. The night usually goes like this: 8 pm Kitty goes to sleep; I read my book until 10 pm, then I grab a pudding snack and a couple of cookies and continue reading until 11 pm when I turn on the radio and listen to the BBC (by the way, all through this I am getting up every 10 minutes to check the radar and look around on the deck.); at midnight, Kitty gets up, shifts the pillows, looks around and then dives into her book while I hit the rack. When not looking around, she reads her book, listens to the BBC and does her crossword puzzles. She heard that doing crossword puzzles keeps one from getting Alzheimers.
   Friday, July 4th -- The sun came up during my 4 to 6 am watch. As it rose in the east, there was a gold yellow line shimmering across the ocean from directly under the sun to the bow of TAMURE, as though God was blessing us. The sea was oily calm and the engine droned on. We only had 80 miles to go; too much to make it all the way to Flores before dark, but too short to keep powering all night. By the time Herb came on, we were 20 miles out, therefore, we stopped the engine and just drifted until dawn.
   During Herb's schedule, I told him we would not be up on Saturday, because we would probably be at a restaurant eating a good meal and toasting him and the help he gave us. SHADOW FAX came up next and told Herb that they didn't know what kind of food we served on TAMURE, but they were having a nice meal of fresh cooked chicken. SHADOW FAX by this time was only 4 miles from us. After Herb's schedule, SHADOW FAX called us on the VHF and said they felt sorry for our food situation, so they were going to power over to us and hand us some freshly baked banana bread that Allison had made. Even though it was pitch black dark by then, they powered over, came close to our starboard side, handed us a loaf of banana bread and powered off about 4 miles to sit and wait for dawn as we were doing.
   We spent the rest of the night just drifting on a flat sea. No one likes to come into a strange port after dark. There is just too much chance to make a grave error.
   Saturday, July 5th -- Dawn broke and still no wind, so we fired up the engine and powered the last 18 miles (we had drifted 2 miles towards Flores during the night). As we closed on the island the haze was so thick that we couldn't see a thing until we were only 2 miles away. Then the mountain that rises almost 3,000 feet broke through the clouds and the fog lifted enough to see the breakwater and the harbor. By 9 am, the anchor was down and the dinghy in the water. We had made it. Time to check in with officials.
   This may have been a bit boring to many of you, but I wanted to give you a feeling of the monotony of a long passage.

Bill and Mary's Paella

- Bill Finkelstein & Mary Mack

S/V RAPTOR DANCE, V50-107

This is a very variable recipe, depending on what seafood looks best that day, so go shopping and buy what looks good. We have tried a lot of different seafood ingredients, but this combo is our favorite.    The pan you make the Paella in is important. It should be a large diameter shallow skillet. The recipe below works best in a skillet of at least 12 inches or larger paella pan. If you don't have skillets that size, split the recipe between two pans. 2 very spicy sausages (e.g. hot Italian) 1 to 2 tbsp. chopped garlic (use more if you wish) 1 cup Arborio rice (use more as you wish) 2-1/2 cup chicken broth or stock for each cup rice Good pinch Saffron (heat some broth and steep saffron ahead of time) 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes Crushed red pepper, as desired 1 to 2 cup peas (frozen are OK) Shrimp (best with shells on) - about a dozen large Mussels (they work better than clams) - about a dozen large Fish, such as salmon and/or scallops, squid, octopus or ? (we like salmon or scallops) - about a pound cut into bit-sized pieces 1 sliced roasted red pepper for topping    Crumble the sausage and saute until brown. It should not be cooked until done at this point. Remove sausage and reserve.    Add olive oil to pan if sausage did not render out much fat. Add rice and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned    Add garlic and return sausage to pan. Careful not to burn garlic. After the garlic is lightly browned, add stock, saffron and tomatoes.    After this simmers a short time, taste the broth to see how much more red pepper you want to add; then add it.    The peas go in next, but wait until just before you add the seafood (at around the 10 minute mark).    The total cooking time for the rice is about 20 minutes. You.ll need to taste it to determine if it needs more liquid, but remember that the mussels will add some. Also, you will need to determine how long the seafood will take, depending on size. Have the seafood room temperature before adding.    When adding the seafood, push the pieces into the rice. All the seafood won.t necessarily go in at the same time; it depends on the size of the pieces.    When everything is in, add the roasted red pepper decoratively across the top. At the 20 minute mark, the rice should be done, but still al dente.    Generally, the peas and fish go in around 15 minutes, the shrimp and mussels at 17 minutes and everything is done at 20 minutes (plus resting time).    Turn off the heat and cover with a lid or towel and let the paella rest off the burner for at least 7 minutes; then serve and enjoy!