Wind SSE 10 knots, Course ENE, Speed 3 knots, Position 39° 28' S 92° 17' E

The Russians are preparing a Mars space analogous experiment inside a closed capsule with specially chosen candidates.  One of the things they will be doing is growing a garden for vegetables.  I have grown gardens on the boat and hydroponically inside with lights on land.  Compared to growing sprouts, it's a lot harder and doesn't give as much to eat.  Maybe they are going to grow sprouts, but that wasn't in the rather lengthy article that was sent to us.  I consider sprouting seeds and beans to be the key to our diet and is perhaps the special thing we are doing that if all else works will allow us to live without re-supply on the sea and away from firm earth longer than any humans have.  Therefore, I dedicate another day's communications to extolling their virtues.  We eat big bowls of sprouts twice a day every day.  I hope we don't have to ration or cut back on them because they enable me to not long for the food on land.  What I've read about sprouts says when a seed or bean sprouts, it goes through a miracle of nature.  Not only is it a living food when I chew them with a long list of vitamins, but certain vitamins of a sprout can jump up 600 percent compared to when the bean or seed is un-sprouted.

We need the energy because unlike living in a space capsule, this is an extremely athletic challenge.  We sprout all of the beans that we eat whether they are consumed raw or cooked.  They need less cooking time when they are sprouted, so we save on cooking fuel which is a precious commodity both in a space ship and on the high seas.

Sprouts do use up water, but we have learned to recycle and use less water.  I hear astronauts get to eat fine Parmigiano Reggiano cheese like we do.  I hope they get to eat sprouts too.  I also hope they get to touch sprouts because running your fingers through living grass is one of the great pleasures of life and one of the activities we participate in here to keep us from missing living on land.

Soanya's View:
Sprouts are easy to eat and easy to digest.  It was one of the few foods I still had an appetite for when I was very seasick.  True I didn't eat as many sprouts during those times, but I didn't eat much of anything during those times either.  I think they were what kept me going during all those moments of not eating and Reid is also convinced of that.  He tells me in a light scolding voice, “You have to eat your sprouts or else you have to take vitamins.”  Then I look at him and try to get more down even if I'm already full.  He likes to make bigger salads for me than I would make for myself and then he wonders why they don't get finished!  Though we eat them twice a day, they haven't gotten boring yet.  They are a refreshing green addition to our meals.

Reid and Soanya