Middle of the Gulf of Mexico

It has been a long while since my last post and time has flown by as I have been very busy !

This is the third day of our voyage from the anchorage near the entrance to Del Carmen, Mexico en route Galveston Texas where we will outfit Discovery for our upcoming trip to Brazil. For anyone not familiar with Del Carmen, it is located in the Bay of Campeche west of the Yucatan Peninsula or about as far south as once can travel in the Gulf of Mexico. Our client FUGRO has a drilling rig on our 180' work-deck where they have been taking core samples ot depths up to 450' off the coast of Mexico.

Our current position is 24 degrees 30.89 minutes North Latitude and 93 degrees 24.79 minutes West Longitude at a speed of 8.5 knots. our Estimate Time of Arrival is 21:00 hours on March 1st, 2007. I'll be glad when we arrive because my cell phone will be working if only for a short time before we sail for Rio.

As Captain this is the first time I have had the vessel alone while my boss Captain Wakefield Ball who is the Master of the vessel, took some time off. As Captain I have been responsible for anchoring the vessel on four points on location with four 10,000 pound anchors that have 6000 feet of 1 1/4 inch cable each. This is quite a challenge as running anchor wires in this fashion requires a lot of skill and experience, but this is part of why I love this job and what attracts me to the work. Wakefield Ball is a Master at this craft and I have learned a ton from him, he has been an invaluable resource and has been very supportive as I hone my skills. Also some of my other duties have been completing customs paperwork with Mexican and US Officials, processing payroll, ordering supplies, supervising ships work, etc.

I extraordinarily miss my beautiful lady Katie who has had family and friend visitors for the past two weekends in our CONDO in San Pedro. Very much looking forward to coming home sometime soon. Our swimming pool and Spa's will be refurbished and we are getting interior shutters installed. Having her in my life has inspired greater confidence in my abilities and for that I am grateful as well as having regular communications with Julia and Hayden Brown, Hayden just started Track at his school (Spencer Butte) in Eugene Oregon and Julia has learned to drive a stick shift, both are getting good grades in school and I am very proud of them.