Is the juice worth the…

Today, it rained.

I know! All day, it was cloudy and rainy. I had this idea that this trip would be epic: sun, big blue skies, and killer sunsets.

Not so much. Sure, it is sunny and hot, and we do have pretty solid sun action. But I guess the clouds are more prevalent than I thought.

We are currently in the ITCZ area, also known by the more popular name: the doldrums. It is essential a band that circles the earth at the point where the winds from the north meet the winds from the south and create no wind. It is a classic 1+1 = 0.

The other thing that happens in the ITCZ is random and frequent squalls, which are basically a lot of wind in very high intensity. They are best avoided.

So the ITCZ could best be explained as shit. Clouds. Rainy. No wind. Squalls. I guess you take the good with the bad.

Today, in the tending news, we saw a ship. And let me tell you a story.

So we are messing with the sails—up, down, up, down. And I look out, and we see on the horizon a big white ship—it looks cargo-like. As a point of reference, the horizon is about 8 nm away, so it’s a ways off.

So, like we do, we pull it up on the AIS, and I pull it up on my app. And bam. Mind blown.

The ship’s name is Orange Wave.

Category: Fruit Juice Tanker

I am like, “WTF?” See the pictures below. The photo of the tanker shows it empty. Look at the front; you can see it riding high, so it’s empty. Also, look at the ports in the picture. They are somewhere in Brazil and Tampa!!

So, this kicks off some internet-based research. Thank you, Starlink.

So, I’ve included a link below. I encourage a quick read. But the headline is that the orange juice we all think is Florida OJ is shipped in from Brazil in these super customized juice tankers. They all have fantastic names—the one we saw was Orange Wave, but there is also Orange Star, Atlantic Orange, and Orange Sky.

These highly specialized tankers move juice concentrate from Brazil to the USA, giving tanker-to-table an entirely new meaning! (No idea what the meaning was before)

Tomorrow, I suspect we will be literally turning the corner on the continent of South America, saying goodbye to Brazil and beginning to point to our next destination.

Here is the link. It’s worth a read; the puns are next level.

https://www.theshipyardblog.com/orange-juice-tankers-how-your-breakfast-sails-the-seas/