Chip's Exciting Adventure

Day 21 at sea and in Honolulu

2009-05-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in the Ala Wai Boat Harbor in Honolulu. I hear a crackling sound that Lal told me is little shrimp under the dock—don’t ask me to explain why they crackle. We have cleared immigration and will have our visit from agriculture tomorrow. Brad is catching a few winks (the docking procedure is draining for a skipper.) Lal and I just had breakfast. Since we have to get rid of all of our fresh fruits and vegetables—which you can imagine is not much—I cooked up 5 onions and made an “omelet” with our remaining 3 eggs and mozzarella cheese. Yummy!!

Hey I don’t think I ever mentioned the name of our boat. It is Pax Vobiscum which those of you raised Catholic (or Latin majors) will recognize as what the priest says during mass—peace be with you. Brad chose the name as it is something that his Dad always said. It is lovely being on a boat with such a greeting…

Yesterday we spent the day partly motoring and watched the islands of Maui and Molokai for most of the day. We were moving pretty slowly as we were in no hurry since we were scheduled to arrive in Honolulu at night where we would most likely wait until morning to enter the harbor. We had a lovely cocktail hour finishing the Scotch that we had saved and shared our gratitudes to one another for making this dream happen for each of us. It was really sweet.

I started my night watch last night by going to the head. As I was standing there I glanced out the porthole only to see a huge floating city taking up about a third of my view! It was a huge cruise ship fully lit heading out to sea (or one of the other islands.) I was so excited. I grabbed my life jacket and headed out on deck to see the waxing moon light the water and Honolulu in the distance. The lights of the developments east of Diamond Head spilled down the hillsides like molten lava at night. It was awesome. Saw a green light in the distance surrounded by black. Turned out to be a huge barge being towed—had to veer off as we were not about to argue with it!

I had the best watch as over the next three hours (11pm-2am). It was actually quite windy until we came into the lee of Oahu (where the wind was blocked by the island.) I was given a specific latitude-longitude point to hit where I would wake the others. Thanks to our trusty GPS, I hit it within 20 feet by manually steering. Diamond Head came into view as did the lights of the hotels marching up and down Waikiki Beach. We pulled into the water just off Waikiki at around 3am and decided after searching for the harbor entrance to simply heave-to (stop the boat in the water and drift) and wait until first light to dock. Lal and I crashed on the two settees while Captain Brad manned the watch—was almost hit by an outgoing fishing boat!

Dawn came and the lights went out in the hotels on the beach and out came the surfers and the outrigger canoers. It was so magical. We had an uneventful docking procedure.

Last galley report—had ginger barbecued beef last night with quinoa. Whew…no more at sea meals to plan.

Today is clothes washing, showers, galley cleaning and food inventory, and general boat cleaning. Tonight we plan on going out for a landside dinner—will definitely include fresh vegetables!

Well folks, I will sign off. I sure had fun sharing my trip with you all this way. Look forward to reconnecting with all of you in person soon.

Lots of love—pax vobiscum

Day 20 at sea

2009-05-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

OK. Now who moved the big island of Hawaii? So much for our precise landfall calculations. We were so excited yesterday to see land and didn't. Since we are all scientist types on the boat, here is our list of hypotheses:

1. The military is playing with some new cloaking device.
2. We are hopelessly off course (and our GPS is in cahoots with the conspiracy) and will come putting into Yokohama harbor in about 6 weeks.
3. All the Hawaiian islands have sunk.
4. Our view of the big island was obscured by VOG (version of smog caused by volcanic dust).

As much as the first three hypotheses are intriguing to think about, we have settled on the fourth. All we could see was this haze in the distance which has persisted through this morning. We are somewhere off the channel between Maui and Hawaii this morning and still have not seen land. Oh well, hopefully we see something before we crash into our slip in the Honolulu Yacht Club...

We lost wind yesterday about 4pm and have been motoring ever since. Motoring is kind of a drag as it is noisy. However, losing wind generally means a better night's sleep as there is no swell. Unfortunately, the last half of the night was a combination of noise and rock and rolling as we were picking up some what we believe to be inter-island swells caused by the Venturi effect. I am so gullible...I believe everything they tell me...

Last night, I made my piece-de-resistance meal---pizza. It was quite an ordeal for the cook--and the person cleaning up. I made two pizzas, making the dough from scratch: one with potatoes (used the dried scalloped potatoes from Winco), capers, mushrooms, garlic, sauteed onions, bacon bits, and mozzarella cheese; the other including a red sauce base, and chicken. The crust was kind of weird. I am not sure I have quite mastered the art of baking on board--except for boxed brownies and corn meal muffins. It was a surprise for Brad and Lal who said that this was the first boat-made pizza they have ever had. It was fun to do...

We saw our first man-made light on the seas last night right after sunset. First thought it was a boat but turned out to be stationary--some kind of a fishing bouy that we read about. Lal and I saw another one at our 11pm change of watch.

Watch was a bit spooky last night. There was kind of a haze out. When I first came up, I thought we were shrouded in fog. Hearing the drone of the engine and the incessant clanking, squeaking, and banging of the boom trying to swing back and forth as there was no wind to catch the mainsail. Fortunately, we have preventers in place which, surprise, surpise, PREVENT the boom from wide swings that happen when the wind comes from behind the boat, shifts quickly and cause the boat to gybe. Gybing has been known to knock folks off boats or at least knock them out as the boom comes violently from one side to the other. Remember, the boom is the big metal thingie that sticks out from the bottom of the mast and has the mailsail attached to it...I was also hard on watch since we were so close to civilization and knowing that there were potentially other man-made objects in the water. I was constantly scanning the horizon for lights...

Saw some different kind of fish jumping yesterday evening. Small fish--kind of looked like little tuna and were only about 6 inches long. We noted a fly on our boat (a good sign that land is near). We thought they might be jumping for flies...or not...

Well we are looking forward to our last day at sea. Only one more night watch, yippee! We hope to be into Honolulu harbor around 11 am tomorrow morning. When we get there we will call customs who will come and look at our passports and make sure we are not bring bad things in to the States. How that will impact us is that we need to get rid of the remaining fresh stuff we have--garlic, ginger, limes, and onions. Hmmm...maybe I can invent a new soup using those ingredients tonight?

Well, I will sign off for now. Going back on deck and staring for some evidence that we have reaching the welcoming Hawaiian islands...as opposed to the cloaked Hawaiian islands.....or the sunk Hawaiian islands....

Day 19 at sea

2009-05-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today is our 27th wedding anniversary. I will being thinking about my love more than usual today.

Last night, we had a rough and tumble night of sleep (or not). The weather was fine. It just was the combination of boat speed, boat direction, and wave direction. We were pounding back and forth all night. Yikes! I am exhausted.

There is definitely a giddiness felt on the boat as we near the end of our adventure. We are scheduled to see the Big Island of Hawaii this morning. We used a landfall calculation from the Bowditch--the navigator's bible which said we should be able to see the top of Mauna Loa when we are within 130 NM. Calculation has to to with the curvature of the earth and height of us on the boat and the height of the point we are trying to see on land. We are about 220 NM from Oahu and even closer to the big island. However, scanning the horizon with binoculars brings up nothing yet. The su has just risen so we think there is morning haze on the horizon. I am really excited.

We have a slip waiting for us at the Honolulu Yacht Club--this is really going to happen!

Last night we watched home movies. Lal's camera takes video as well as stills and we have had fun taking video clips of the passage which will be fun to share with folks back home.

It is getting chilly at night. I have to wear my rain parka to stay warm. What a change from when we started. The days are still warm and sunny, though.

Very little wildlife lately. Lal saw a couple of tropicbirds yesterday morning. And a booby returned to follow us for a while. Flying fish still abound however fewer are ending up on our deck in the mornings. The moon has returned and casts a magical glow over the night ocean. My favorite constellation in the night sky is Scorpio. It looks like a huge treble clef sign. Kaitlin is a Scorpio. Guess that explains why I like (love) it so much.

News from the galley--Mexican goulash last night. Brad and I have inhaled both cans of jalapenos on board using them as condiments to spice up our Mexican dinners. Tonight I plan on making pizza--stay tuned. Don't have pizza pans so will use tin foil.

Well, tomorrow's installment will have us sailing south of the islands of Hawaii, Molokai, and Maui as we press on to Oahu.

Until then.

Day 18 at sea

2009-05-03T13:22:00.001-07:00

We are within 3 days of Hawaii (357 nautical miles). I can almost smell the poi! I think we are all getting a bit itchy to see land. Brad told me that this 2500 NM passage is one of the longest passages that one can make without landfall. The Atlantic long passages are broken up by the Azores (coming from Europe) or Newfoundland (coming from the US).

We had an uneventful day sailing. Beautiful blue skies, amazing cloud formations. We had one cloud formation during the day that reminded me of a multi-layered sedimentary rock formation. I took pictures. I hope they capture the feeling.

Forgot to mention that we have been seeing an Artic tern over the past several days. They are all white except for a black hood on their heads. And they have a long wisp of feathers extending beyond their main tail. Lal tells me that they have one of longest ranges of all birds--I guess one end includes the North Pole, huh?

Let's talk about bedding. I told you that I have to unmake and remake my bed twice a day because we are sleeping in two different places every night. So I am quite knowledgeable about my bedding. I am using a pillow that was already on the boat when we started--with a clean pillow case. I also brought a single sheet that I simply use as a bottom--sleeping without a top since it has been so warm. Well, fast forward 15 days. Both the pillow and the sheet are sort of damp given the humid--just a hint of dampness--and real stinky. I have tried washing the pillow case and it doesn't quite dry. And the bedding is overdue for a good spin and tumble in a real washer and dryer. Fortunately, we are all kind of stinky so it doesn't quite matter as much...

Well, it has taken me 15 days to get the courage to write about our first two days at sea--April 13 and 14. Of course, the details blur, but the highlights persist....now for the lost episodes.

Our first day out, I was really excited about throwing the fishing lines overboard. Fortunately, I was encouraged to wait for things to settle down. Little did I know that seasickness was going to set in for all of us and last for nearly 3 days. It was hot and muggy. We were all sort of OK on deck. However, any venturing down below could only be endured for about 30-60 seconds before we had to run back up the companionway to fresh air--and horizon. The key to seasickness is to keep the horizon in view. Ironically, another thing that helped was simply going below and sleeping under a fan. With eyes closed and in a supine position, I was getting relief. Probably did this 3-4 times a day.

Our meals were very simple. We all ate from the same jar of applesauce. Put peanut butter on saltine crackers. I had boiled some rice before we left Bora Bora because I had been told that I might not feel like cooking the first couple of days--no shit, Sherlock. Anyway, our first night out was the galley night from hell.

I decided that I as going to make a tuna, rice, soy sauces, ginger, blah, blah nice meal for our first night--even though I certainly didn't feel like eating. Remember the background for this story is a pitching and yawling boat and me with baseline nausea. So Lal agrees to take one for the team and go below to retrieve the ingredients as I don't feel like moving. We carefully review what I need and where things are so she can make her tactical strike in the cabin and get everything gathered before her 30-60 seconds of reprieve before the intense below-deck nausea set in. It took her several attempts. On one of these dumpster dives, she opens a galley cabinet was attacked by the previously upright bottles of olive oil, soy sauce, and safflower oil. They launched as torpeos as she opened the cabinet. We heard a big crash. Fortunately nothing was broken and she was not impaled.

Forgetting one ingredient, I give her a reprieve do my own dumpster diving. I carefully open the "cabinet of death" and the oil bottle sneaks through the crack and lands in a bucket of fresh water in the sink, its top pops open and we have our own little oil spill. Nice. Fortunately the oil doesn't go anywhere else...yet.

So now I try to assemble my tuna surprise in the bucking bronco cockpit, chopping garlic and ginger, etc.. By this time it is sort of getting dark. So all of my ingredients are sitting on the floor of the cockpit (out of the way). Now Brad decides to go below for something--must have been really important as none of us really wanted to go below for anything. He squeezes past Lal just as a big wave causes the boat to pitch, he steps in the teriyaki sauce bowl, splatters teriyaki sauce everywhere and lands in my lap. Nice. Now we have tuna and soy smells to sooth our nauseous stomachs in our one refuge--the cockpit. Well, it doesn't end. He continues down below--this time to get cloths to clean up the mess, and we hear an expletive deleted noise from the galley. Our contained oil spill had spread due to the pitching and yawling and now basically had oil covering the floor, counters, and cabinets of the galley making things awfully darned slippery. Brad and Lal valiantly cleaned up the mess which really persisted over several days. The next day we ended up throwing the tuna surprise overboard without eating a bite as it had too many memories from our keystone cops episode of the first night.

The second untold story was how we found that we had algae in our water tanks. I had noticed from the beginning (even when moored off Raiatea) that the water tasted kind of funny. I couldn't quite identify the taste--I later realized that it was old hot tub water before we need to chlorinate (don't ask me how I know what old hot tub water tastes like!) Anyway, we think it was our second day at sea when Lal brings her water bottle up and says "hey, guys, look at this water." Remember those offers that they always had on the back of comic books for your very own sea monkey colony. Well, there was lots of stuff floating around in our "pristine" drinking water. Needless to say we were bummed. Although the water tanks were drained, cleaned with a bleach containing solution, and filled with fresh water in Raiatea, we had forgotten to treat the water with chlorine after filling. So we actually considered turning around--after two hard fought days into the wind--going back to Raiatea and fixing the problem. Fortunately, we were able to figure out a workaround--treated the tanks with a chlorine containing scented product and then have been manually filtering the water ever since to get rid of the dead algae. Needless to say, I will be ready for some really fresh water. It still has that essence of pool water taste...

Well, now you all can sleep at night. I know that you were wondering what happened in those first couple of days before communications...

Until tomorrow.

Day 17 at sea

2009-05-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well I finally found the cure for the last-hour-of-night-watch blues...dancing to the iTouch. Last night the seas were so calm and our speed
so slow (2.5-3.5 knots) that I felt comfortable bringing the music machine out on deck. I put the ear buds in, assumed my "king of the world"
position, turned our our House Dance Party play list and started rocking out with the boat. Not nearly as great a dance partner as Kathy but
did in a pinch. It was magical. Stars peeping through the clouds. Bio luminescence sparkling along side our lumbering boat. I was waiting for
the dolphins to join me but alas.. When I got to the Irene Caras song from Flashdance "What a Feeling" I was again struck by the line "..take
your passion, make it happen" which had special meaning for me as I am coursing my way to Hawaii. I love that line!

Yesterday was particularly lovely for sailing. Morning was kind of cloudy, not really knowing whether we were in for some precipitation or
not. However, early afternoon, everything blew by and we were left with blue skies and great winds and a nice point of sail (meaning where the wind is coming from in relationship to the boat direction i.e, our desired direction.) When the wind is coming perpendicular to the boat's
direction, the ride is more comfortable. For most of this passage, we have been sailing into the wind which has led to the "virtual reality ride" effect that I described in an early email.

I am realizing that I don't have much "free" time during the day. After the 8 hours of combined watch, sleeping, and worrying about food, I am finding very little time for reading, just sitting (not on watch), doing stuff on the computer, etc. I don't think I have had so little from time in a LONG time: time for just sitting, reading, computer work, etc. I am really spoiled.

We had an interesting discussion about keeping the boat clean. Lal has been doing more than her fair share of cleaning as it bothers her more than El Capitan and I. It remindes me of discussions that Kahty and I often have. The three of us discussed male-female differences (in what
Lal calls HEALTH AND HYGIENE--which Brad and I had to chant several times until we got it right) and role stereotyping. Was quite thought provoking. I am still processing it. To provide some context, Lal is a pretty spunky woman (like the one that I am married to) AND she is self aware enough to understand the complexity of the issues--wants to support me with my cooking endeavors; knows she is bothered by it more than us; etc.

We now all have our return tickets to the mainland. I will be flying back on Monday and Lal and Braad will fly back to Seattle on Thursday--first spending time cleaning and readying the boat for the final passage--Honolulu to Seattle. That will probably happen in July. Brad would prefer to have someone else take that passage so he can be home with Sally supporting her on her Seattle City Council person race.

Well that's it for this morning.

Day 16 at sea

2009-05-03T13:21:00.000-07:00

Probably best thing that happened yesterday was BATH TIME. I had been taking a sponge bath sporadically in the galley sink which was less than satisfying. Yesterday, before Brad got up and while Lal was on watch, I grabbed two pails of fresh water, some soap, and a wash rag and headed out to the cockpit WITHOUT my lifejacket--that's why I did it while the captain was still asleep :) The cockpit drains right out to the ocean so I could spill away without concern. It felt so good and felt like I was doing a favor for my crewmates, too. At one point, I asked Lal to turn around and stare off the stern while I did the full Monte wash. I thought what a classic Kodak moment shot from the companionway.

Had a very uneventful night last night which everyone appreciated. We did put out our "lightening protectors" last night based on all of the lightening that we saw the night before. Lightening protectors are very fancy sailing gear that you can buy at an auto parts store--jumper cables. You hook positive and negative from one end to 2 shrouds (the wires that hold up the mast) and dangle the other ends into the water. That way, lightening has a path to ground and doesn't fry all of the electronic equipment on board.

My favorite place to stand when I am on watch is what I think of as my Leonardo di Caprio "king of the world" pose. Now I am not standing at the bow of our boat because a) it would be hard to get there with the boat rocking and rolling; and, b) it would be really hard to steer the boat or monitor the gauges from the bow. However, I am standing in the cockpit right behind the dodger (the small canvas covering that has the plastic windshield in it), looking over it, and rocking back and forth to the movement of the boat, scanning the horizon for another boat (never seen one), whales (never seen one), floating cargo containers that fell of a container ship (never seen), or dolphins (seen some). Well yesterday I was in my favorite pose talking to Brad who was standing as the admiral in the companionway when the mother of all bow waves dowsed my face and entire body, immediately raising my body salinity to a gazillon parts per million--after my nice fresh water bath. Brad said it was a classic and wishes he caught it on film.

I think we have figured out our mystery bird--a blue footed booby. We have been hesitant to call it because the darned bird would not land on our boat so we could see his feet. Anyway, we can all sleep better at night now.

We left the jib in all day yesterday, sailing with less sail as we were so tired from the night before, we didn't care if we went a bit slower. Still going above our average of 5 knots. Actually, we have been making great time overall. We now have about 600 NM to go meaning that at 120 NM per day we will arrive at 7am Sunday morning. If we go much faster we will arrive in the night!

My return flight arrangement were graciously made by my celebrity travel agent (and good friend and former Medicalogic colleague) Mark Leavitt. Mark, I am very grateful for you helping me with the somewhat complicated itinerary. I am very excited and at peace now that I have my return tickets!

Cooking report--made "curried shrimp/crab spring rolls with spicy peanut sauce" for dinner last night. I had never used those paper thin spring roll thingies. They are very cool and easyl. Simply dip them in water (I used warm water) for about 20-30 seconds then lift them out (kind of tricky), fill, and roll up. Yummy.

You know that we have been on the boat together too long when our conversation is about what color the bathing suit was on Lal's Barbie she had as a little girl...there are only so many stories...

Anyway, off to another day in the tropics.

Hope you are all well and happy.

Chip's adjectives for S-A-I-L-I-N-G

2009-05-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

Chip's Adjectives for Sailing

Sad--that I am away from Kathy for so long; that I can't wiggle my nose and bring her on the boat to see the amazing moments: dolphins, sunsets, flying fish…

Awesome--sunsets, dolphins, bio lumenescence, stars, experiencing the rich tradition of traveling by sea.

Irritating--pooping in a rocking phone booth and not being able to put the toilet paper in the toilet; 3 days of seasickness at the start; waking up for night watch; being unable to identify the mystery bird; the delay in email communication

Loving--thinking up and cooking fun meals for my boat mates; adventure and romanticism of sailing the high seas

Inspired/intrigued/impressed--by the complex mechanics of the sailboat and the wind; being on the open ocean with such knowledgable and patient teachers; can't wait to read about the olden-day Polynesians who set out in their canoes, not know what they would find, and ended up in the Hawaiian islands.

No-plussed--8 hours a day on watch (5 during the day, 3 at night); last hour of night call

Grateful--for having the opportunity to pursue a long standing dream; for a supportive partner who encouraged me to do this when the opportunity arose; for two awesome boat mates who have taught me a lot about sailing, taking care of the boat, living together in very close confines, and the natural world around us; and for the ability to share the experience with you all in real-time via email

Day 15 at sea

2009-05-03T13:19:00.001-07:00

Well, we had a very blustery night after a beautiful, fast day. Right before I got out of bed I heard a huge crash of a wave that must have filled the cockpit (outside part of boat) with sea water. I came on watch at 11pm and Lal was soaked. She said, "you better get on your rain gear." It was blowing something fierce outside. It was scary facing the prospect of three hours of manual steering and getting hammered by random, crashing waves and possible horizontally driven rain. I felt confident that I was up for it. The irony was that I was blessed (knock on driftwood) with the perfect watch. No rain, strong manageable winds, and only having to take the boat off auto-steering for a couple of minutes. I spent the entire watch in awe of the sheet lightening that was putting on a show off the stern of our boat--a good place to be!

Had a cool wildlife show yesterday. I was below decks when Brad yells out "Dolphins". I come above and see a pack/pod/group of Risso's dolphins steaming to the north off our stern. I say steaming because they really looked like a group of destroyers that you see in those old WWII movies that are moving towards a target. Then ahead we see a similar group moving towards the same apparent destination. Then scanning off towards the north where they were heading we see a bunch of birds flying around, bobbing, and diving. Then all of a sudden a huge fish jumps cleanly out of the water--twice. Now I say huge, because we were probably 100-200 yards away and it was BIG. Probably trying to evade the dolphins that had already arrived. I've been told by our resident naturalist that the sequence is probably this: big group of small fish attracting the birds and tuna which attract the dolphins. Anyway it was really cool to observe. These dolphins were definitely not interested in playing in our wake!

In the process of this stormy night, Brad announced at 11am that the leak in the aft cabin started up again so we were back to sleeping on the windward settee with cushions propped at our hips to prevent us from being thrown off. Dang.

Coming onto a stormy watch reminded me of the feeling I had as a surgical resident when i was on-call for the hospital and my colleagues were all "checking-out" their really sick patients to me to watch over that night. (Checking-out in this context means the transfer of information from the physician taking care of the patient during the day to the one who will be on-call--in this case in the hospital--that night. Generally only the really sick patients are discussed.) There was always a sense of dread...

Made my return flight arrangements yesterday. That was a big decision as we are basing our arrival on estimates, including many factors beyond our control. My current ETA is Sunday morning in Honolulu assuming we can make 120 NM per day for the remainder of our trip.

Well, all off to put deoderant on--doesn't really work much any more....

A Day in the Life n the High Seas

2009-05-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

Last night I thought it might be fun to share with you what a typical day on the high seas looks like.

0000 hour--one hour into my night watch. Writing in my journal, spacing out looking at the bio luminescence and the stars. Thinking, dang I am sleepy and I have 2 more hours.

0200 hour--relieved from watch by Brad. Write current coordinates in log book--which I take off the GPS. Move my pillow and sheets to the aft cabin and make my bed for the first time in a 24 hour period. I settle into the second half of my night's sleep.

0630-0730 hour--wake up. Come up the companionway and chat with Lal who is on watch. I stay in the companionway (remember as either an asshole or the admiral) because I don't want to have to put my life jacket on yet. So darned hot!

0800 hour--write my email to Kathy and to you all from the notes that I wrote on my night watch.

0900 hour--get breakfast ready, often just phulling out granola, yogurt, dried fruit, and a can of fruit which we simply pass around with a spoon. After breakfast, I rinse the dishes with salt water--which I do after every meal--and then a little dishes fairy comes and washes them and puts them away. Really cool how that happens! I also filter our algae-bloomed drinking water for our water bottles for the morning.

1000 hour--start my day watch

1230-1300 hour--pull out leftovers for lunch or make a quick tuna salad--trying to use up our interminable supply of tuna. Captain and Lal have their daily cold Hinano beer (brewed in Tahiti). I am rarely in the mood for beer at noon.

1500 hour-- relived from watch by Brad. Write our current coordinates in the log book (see the pattern?) Head down below to take a one hour nap under the fan. Dreaming about what to cook for dinner.

1600-1700 hours--prepare dinner, often listening to music from my iTouch. Sinfully throwing garbage out the porthole.

1700 hour--Cocktail time. Scotch, rum, or wine, toasting to appreciations, and watching the sun set.

1745 hour--Dinner served

1815-1845 hour--I take Brad's watch for a bit so he can send/receive our daily emails.

1915-1930 hours--Prepare for bed.. Floss teeth. May read a bit. Make my bed for the second time that day on the leeward (pronounce loo-ward) settee.

2000-2250 hours--First half of night sleep--not alwasy very restful. Wear earplugs because of all the boat noise.

2250 hour--Woken up by my trust iTouch for night watch. Use the head. Un-make my settee bed to make it available for Lal

2300 hour--relive Lal of watch and settle into my night watch

Note: at some points during the day--engine turned on to charge our batteries. Water maker is turned out and we also recharge all our electronic toys with the inverter (just like the car inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter.)

Day 14 at sea

2009-05-03T13:17:00.001-07:00

Kathy sent me some feedback (and have heard directly from family) that some of you are enjoying these daily missives. That feels good. I sure have enjoyed thinking about what to share with you all (usually on my night watch--scrawling in my notebook by headlamp.)

So, I haven't really told you why I enjoy cooking on the boat so much. It's because I can throw garbage right out the porthole. Just like the 1950's. It feels so darned non-PC that it is enjoyable. Cans, paper, wet garbage. The only thing that we don't jettison overboard is plastic. Man, our garbage bag is quite small after 2 week of plastic only. When we throw beer cans over, we rip them open so they will sink. Speaking of not sinking, one day we saw 3 or 4 plastic bottle floating in the great big ocean...re-inforcing why we don't throw plastic stuff overboard. Bad for turtles and other critters.

Yesterday we performed a heave-to maneuver (I think for the second time.) This maneuver essentially stops the boat in the water, allowing us to have some semblance of normalcy. We did it mainly so that Brad could repair the leaking deck drain with silicone and let it dry a bit. I decided to tackle washing the floor of the cabin (the shoe) as well as clean the head. We opened all of the portholes (which are pretty much closed when under sail) and aired things out. Felt great! We were bobbing like a cork in the ocean for about a hour.

Our mystery bird keeps on visiting us with lots of flyovers and other close encounters as if to say "haven't you guys figured out what kind of bird I am yet?" We just keep on scratching our heads and thumbing through the bird book.

Saw our first view of Polaris last night--the North Star--and guess what. It was 8 degrees above the horizon (just a lucky guess) as we had just crossed 8 degrees latitude.

We have 868 nautical miles to go...I think we have made it through the zone of weirdness as last night was a very calm watch for all. Great winds and clear skies. I think we have finally emerged into the Northern Tropics...

Report from the galley--made chicken enchiladas last night with flour tortillas starting with a package that we picked up in Tahiti. Used Edam as the cheese and chicken from Costco. Truly international fare. Also made a pot of chili for today so I don't have to do much cooking tonight.

Well off to write my special edition for you all.

Day 13 at sea

2009-05-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

We have had another weather eventful 24 hours. The convergence zone has kicked up alot of wind and a little rain (although none on my watch.) Winds gusting nearly to 30 knots. Right when I came on my watch last night at 11pm, the wind picked up so strongly that I had to manually steer the boat for nearly an hour--which means I can't simply sit and zone out. Even this morning, as I write this, it is grey and blustery outside.

We are 988 NM from Honolulu and making decent time. We did have some slow stretches during the day yesterday. As I mentioned earlier when are shooting for 120 NM per day. However, our line is not perfectly straight. For example, last night when the wind was so strong, I had to head the boat almost due west (270 degrees) to settle things down (off our course of 320 to Honolulu). We already had rolled up our jib sail. The remaining tricks to handle the weather would be to put another 'reef' in the main sail which means shortening it by rolling about a foot or so of it to the boom--the big pole that the sail is attached to that attaches at the bottom of the mast perpendicularly. Anyway, it is a big deal to reef the main in high winds so we lucked out.

We are having a tiny leak--don't panic--from the deck into the aft cabin. What that means it our second sleeping spot is getting wet and not fun to sleep in. Therefore, we need to use our windward settee berth--the one on the up-side of the heeling boat. What that means is that anyone sleeping in that berth will roll off without some support. We use something called a lee cloth to hold us from rolling off the berth. Kind of like a big sling. More new stuff.

Yesterday we saw 8 dolphins that were of a different species than the others we had seen--Risso's dolphin. Was darker and had a bullnose.

This morning the birds are out in force. Who said siting birds means that land is near? We have seen birds a thousand miles from land. Saw a tropical seabird this morning with a big long tail. We are having a hard time actually figuring out exactly which birds we are seeing because it is really hard to steady the binoculars to get details.

cooking report: I hate to admit it. I caved into having leftovers for dinner last night--and it was a really nice break!

More from the rolling seas tomorrow.

Day 12 at sea

2009-05-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well we had quite an eventful 24 hours, mostly occuring over the past 8 hours. We are entering the ITCZ--the Inter-tropical convergence zone. Sounds a bit like the Bermuda Triangle. Known for squirrely weather due to the "convergence" of the Northern and Southern Equitorial currents. So last night I was sitting on my usually uneventful night watch and the wind picked up, hanging around 25 knots and gusting to 30. The boat was zipping along at 7-8 knots sometimes up to 9. Way to fast for night-time and restful sleeping. There is a quick fix to this--simply bear off the wind (head downwind). But not too far or else the boat will gybe (boom gets caught from behind and flips suddenly to the other side.) Anyway, at such high winds, "Sugar", our autopilot, doesn't do too well and the boat needs to be manually steers--which is tiresome. The second thing to do when the winds kick up is to take in sail--make the sails smaller--or completely take a sail down. This requires the others to help so the whole boat got up. Even after taking the jib (front most sail) in, we were still zipping along. Finally settled down. The big tipoff that I missed was that the stars disappeared. Duh!

This whole episode was repeated at about 6:30am this morning on Lal's watch.

The other big thing last night--which I missed--was that we were twice visited by a group of dolphins. Now that is not a first for us. However, at night, it is quite magical--I am told--because of the bioluminescence that lights up when the water is perturbed. Like by dolphins. So they put on quite and light show, surfacing, jumping, and speeding right below the surface of the water. I will keep my eyes peeled (as opposed to at half mast) on my subsequent watches.

Speaking of dolphins, we were visited during the day yesterday by 4 dolphins. Whereas our first visit several days ago was like a visit from the Brady Bunch--one big happy family, yesterday's visit was like from Fonzie and his gang. They kind of played around for about 15 minutes somewhat lackadasically and then took off--too boring, man. Our fantasy was that they were 4 juvenile males kicked out of their pod to go find females and set up a new pod.

Lal dissected one of the flying fish that ended up on our deck during the night and was not rescued. Got some great photos of their "wing" structure.

Yesterday we started bearing directly for Honolulu. Our bearing is 320 degrees. This morning the GPS says 1100 nautical miles to go. Yippee!!

Cooking report: made a great Thai Red Curry dish with rice last night. I really have had fun thinking about what to cook each night. Our lunches are simply leftovers--and they are stacking up in our small refrigerator!

Well that's it for this morning.

Day 11 at sea

2009-05-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention the outrigger canoes that we saw in Raiatea and Bora Bora. It was so beautiful. The young men out practicing around sunset, silloutted against the setting sun was fabulous. And right as we were leaving the main "harbor" of Raiatea for our first night, we crossed right through a community outrigger event with people of all sizes. Miraculously managed to sneak through the paddlers. Saw paddlers again when on mooring ball at Bora Bora on Easter Sunday. Quite picturesque against the volcano to one side and Bloody Mary's bar a stones throw from the boat.

Speaking of outriggers, I am thinking this entire trip about the original settlers of the Hawaiian islands who came from Polynesia in, I believe, outriggers with sails. We are following their course. I cannot imagine being in an outrigger in 8 foot swells. I can't wait to get back to read more about it.

More about crossing the Equator. I guess now I am officially a shellback, one who has crossed the equator by sea. Woo hoo!

It is so weird being on watch at night. The stars are out. It is nearly pitch black ahead and we are zipping along at 5-6 knots, bouncing all over the place. This is a great exercise in trust..

Remember yesterday when I mentioned the virtual reality ride analogy with the movement of sailing. At least in those seats on the Star Wars ride you have a seat belt. Now imagine a seat without a belt and a hole in the bottom. That is what it is like using the toilet!

Saved a wayward flying fish last night. About 1am last night I heard a flapping close to my ear. I turned around and saw a flying fish who had landed on our deck. Grabbed him by the tail and repatriated him successfully. As Brad said this morning, what stinking luck. He is in ocean far greater than we can fathom (pardon the pun) and he decides to jump out of the water and runs into our 39 foot boat--probably the only boat past this point in months. Speaking of fish, we have yet to pull out our $2000+ worth of fishing tackle. Sounds like a hassle and none of us (obviously) are big fisherpeople. Actually, kind of freaks me out to think about what I would do with a 30 pound tuna in a bouncing galley.

At night after my watch, I am sleeping in the aft berth (in the back of the boat). Since we are on a starboard tack my body is up against the port side hull. I can hear the water bubbling and splashing right by my ear. It is really trippy thinking that only a couple of inches of wood and fiberglass separate me from the vastness of the open ocean. Actually, kind of like flying in an airplane too...

Saw my first plane last night in the sky--it appears as a flashing moving star.

We are making great progress. We are at the midway point of our passage (10 days to go.) We are about to head downwind a bit for a smoother ride to Honolulu.

Hasta manana.

Day 10 at sea

2009-05-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

Big news this morning is that we crossed the Equator at 12:30am early this morning...on my watch. We have now re-joined the Northern Hemisphere. I did get keel-hauled or any other nefarious thing as the rest of the boat was sleeping.

We have had great strong winds since our slow day a couple of days ago, chugging along at 5.5-6.6 knots. We are about 10 degrees east of Hawaii with the winds coming from the northeast so eventually we will be able to head off the wind (downwind) and have a smoother ride. Speaking of our ride, I have finally figured out what it has been like. You know those virtual reality rides they have in the Disney theme parks--like the Star Wars ride where you go into a room with about 30 seats, buckle in, and then the lights go down and a big screen image appears in front of you, and your seat starts moving up/down/sideways to simulate participation in the movie? And lasts about 2 minutes? Well imagine that going on for 9 days...and to make it worse, you can't simply sit in your seat, you have to walk around (and cook dinner) to that motion. That's kind of what it is like...It is amazing that the body can get used to it.

We have gone through several schools of flying fish. They are so cool as the scoot about 3 inches about the water for up to 40 feet.

Last night I made a variation of our Oriental Chicken Salad with peanut sauce, except instead of spaghetti noodles I used quinoa. My artisan bread is ready to bake this morning. I am very interested to see how it turns out.

I am thinking about home and loved ones alot. Life with Kathy, oUr property search, Jammii, my consulting business, healthy living. All good.

Day 9 at sea

2009-05-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was sultry. I felt like I was in New Orleans in the middle of summer (or Pittsburgh). Wind was good and we raced along toward our destination. We are now about 16 hours from the equator. Brad and Lal have been making noises about some kind of ritual that is foisted on first time crossers--keel hauling, tatoos, swimming with the sharks, etc. I guess I will just have to wait. It will be happening just about at the end of my 11pm-2am watch.

Lots of phosphorescence in the wake of our boat last night. Looks like little sparkles. I also notice 2-3 round phosphorescent circle (about 5 inches) pass by in the water last night. Fantasized about giant squid eyes...

I have not been reading to much on the trip yet. I am reading a very interesting book that Kaitlin recommended called "The Spirit Catches You When you Fall Down." It is a book about a Hmong girl with a horrible seizure disorder, Hmong culture, US healthcare, and assimilation of refugees. I have found it a wonderful glimpse into a very different culture.

I will try to make Artisan Bread tonight. That is our new favorite easy, easy bread recipe from the NY Times that bakes a bread with a crusty crust. Will be interested to see if I can get it to work in our little propane oven.

I am getting bruised alot on my hips as I am constantly being thrown into counter, tables, walls, and rails. It will be weird when I get back on dry land and don't have to think about every step I take.

I give up on the English words and phrases that come from sailing. There is a whole darned book written about it that we have on board called "When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There's the Devil to Pay." Anyone interested in learning more fun facts about that can check out the book.

We have had a bird following us that we are trying to identify (Ken where are you when we need you!) Lal is certain it is an albatross. I told her this morning that most people try to get rid of there albatrosses; however, she seems obsessed to get one! We are joking that the bird keeps coming back saying to us "hey people, how many times to I have to show you my bill, my under feathers, my wing configuration, and head coloring for you to figure out what type of bird I am?" I learned a new fun word. Not sure if it is British English only. It is JIZZ. Jizz means something like the ability to identify a bird at a distance by gestalt, the "je ne sais quoi" of the bird.

Well, next time I write we will be back in the Northern Hemisphere.

Day 8 at sea

2009-05-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

The big event of yesterday was the visit to our boat of a group of 20+ dolphins. They played at the bow of our boat for about 30 minutes. Lal and I went up to the bow and were mesmerized. They were jumping and diving. There were littler ones with mothers. They were less than 10 feet from us. It was one of the most amazing animal experiences I have had. Then they disappeared as quickly as they showed up. They were pantropical spotted dolphins.

Yesterday we had a very light wind day and the wind was coming from further east than usual. We actually had to do our first tack (turning the boat from the wind coming over the right bow (starboard tack) to coming over the left bow (port tack). We were actually heading to South America and decided that was not such a great idea. Finally as the wind essentially died, we decided to motor. After about 6 hours, at about 1:30 am at the end of my night watch, the wind came up and we put out the sails again and were back in the saddle. It is so much more pleasant sailing than motoring as when sailing the boat is more in tuned with the waves.

Several days ago we had alot of squalls, some of which were on my watch. A squall usually involves driving rain and higher winds. I am so grateful that I can be at the helm with the skipper in the cockpit and he can watch me as I make the necessary corrections to handle the wind gusts. People pay big money for this kind of sailing instruction :) All I have to do is provide good meals!

We are about 230 nautical miles from the equator--about 2 days away.

Drank some Scotch at sunset last night--yikes, what an adult drink. Finished with a lovely dinner of home-made split pea soup and package corn muffins--my first baking endeavor.

That's it for today.

Day 7 at sea

2009-05-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

We have had a good 24 hours. Wind has been kind of goofy. Coming more from the north than east. Here is our sailing strategy. Honolulu is at about 152 degrees west longitude. We are now trying to get as far EAST as we can before we cross the equator since the prevailing winds will be coming more from the northeast. So what does this all mean? Our boat is built to sail as much as 60 degrees into the wind. If we go more into the wind (like 30 degrees) the sails will start luffing (flapping) and we will not sail efficiently. Therefore, if we want to head due north for example we need the wind to be at least 60 degrees or ENE (east-north-east). With a 60 degree wind, the BEST we could do is due north because we are also affected by an easterly current and leeway--where the boat pushes us sideways. We can always sail more downwind from 60 degrees, just not upwind.

Thought I would mention our water situation. We have as much salt water as we want...regarding fresh water, we have two 40 gallon tanks that we topped off before leaving. Unfortunately, we had an algae bloom in the tanks and only have scented bleach cleaning product to chlorinate the water which is not ideal and, knock on teak, seems to have arrested the growth. There is still alot of sediment in the water so we are manually pouring it through a filter before drinking. We are only using this water for drinking. Everyday, we also make water--kind of like Waterworld. We make about 2.5 gallons and use this water for cooking, final rinse on dishes, and washing clothes and bodies--which are both very hard to keep up with. I am making that easier by simply running around in gym shorts. And yes, I am sometimes using sunscreen. We are under our sun cover (bimini) most of the day.

Yesterday we switched our watch schedule. The two hour night shifts were nice (hard to be on longer in the night) however, they were leading to really disrupted sleep. So our new schedule is:
5-10am Lal
10am-3pm Chip
3pm-8pm Brad
8-11pm Lal
11pm-2am Chip
2am-5am Brad

We will see how that works.

Made fish cakes for dinner last night. They were yummy. Trying to find creative ways to use up our treasure trove of tuna!

A bit about the sails that we are using. We have three sails. The mainsail which goes up the mast. That is the big one. In front of the mast there are two stays or heavy wire cables running along the axis of the boat that hold the mast in place. There are two sails that run up each of these stays. The one closest to the mast is the staysail and the one close to the bow of the boat is the jib sail. We have been sailing with all three up in varying degrees of fullness. This is one of the ways that we control how much power we extract from the wind. When we want to go faster, we can let out more sail. If we have too much power, going to fast, heeling over too much, then one way to adjust that is to take in some sail. The main way we do that is to roll up and unroll the jib sail. It is called a self-furling jib which allows that do be done from the cockpit and we don't have to go to the bow to manually bring the sail down a bit. Really cool.

couple of more nautically derived terms that I thought of:
--to deck some
--give someone a wide berth (must have come from hot-bunking and someone coming off a particularly bad watch!)

Well, I'm off to make pancakes with real butter and maple syrup.

Day 6 at sea

2009-05-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Just finished breakfast of granola and a can of pears--see what a great job I am doing as the cook :) Since my morning watch starts at 10am (oh, I mean 1000) Brad agreed to pinch-hit for me while I do this email. It is so much cooler down in the cabin in the morning. Actually the coolest place in the boat is the companionway (where you walk up from the cabin to the cockpit). The reason why it is so cool is you get the breeze on deck AND don't have to wear a life jacket! Lal told me she heard that the only people who stand in the companionway are assholes or admirals--cause it is not a safe place to block.

Today's fun astronomy fact: remember how to find the North star in the sky. Follow the two stars that make up the bowl part of the Big Dipper (the part of the bowl away from the handle) up to a very bright star. That is Polaris (or the North Star). That is not the cool part. The cool part is that the North Star is directly above the North pole. What that means is if you are at the North Pole and look at the angle between the North Star and the horizon (assuming you were at sea), the angle would be 90 degrees. If you are at the Equator, the North Star would be right on the horizon (or 0 degrees.) Therefore, the angle of the North star from the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere (assuming a flat horizon) is the latitude. Cool, huh.

Ok, back to highlights. We washed our clothes yesterday for the first time. We use our made-water for that so we have limited quantities on any given day. I am hoping today that we can wash our bodies--getting kind of ripe.

Cooking is going well. Made corned beef and cabbage last night. Put some sugar and vinegar in the cabbage so it was kind of sweet and sour. I am getting used to working in the gallery. I am noticing that I am getting a number of sore spots around my hips where I keep banging into things when we pitch and yawl.

Had some more squalls yesterday (fortunately not on my watch.) Lal said that is was nice having a fresh water shower..

saw a frigate bird yesterday. Came up right over our cockpit and hovered. He seemed very curious.

A note about how we send emails. Brad has a special modem that he connects the computer to the shortwave radio. During the day we write our emails. Then around 6pm our time, Brad searches for an open shortwave channel (where someone is not talking), and uses the modem to transfer our emails via shortwave to somewhere that sends them out over the internet. That is the extent of my knowledge. It also means that there may be days when we cannot find an open channel..thus no emails go out.

Being on the boat, I am realizing how many words and expressions that we use in our daily lives have their origin in sailing. Here are a few examples that I thought of on my 2am watch last night
--at the helm
--leeway (movement of a boat sideways by the wind)
--changing course
--uncharted waters (a map is not a map on a boat. It is a chart)
--smooth sailing
--three sheets to the wind
--rudderless

I'm sure more will come to me.
That's all for today.

Day 5 at sea

2009-05-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

I am sitting right in front of the fan in the cabin writing this. It is already very stuffy down here. I find that it is easier to write early in the morning.

Big events yesterday--we are all over our motion sickness--yeah! Had our first cooked meal last night that was enjoyed by all. Cooking on the stove in the rolling galley is quite a challenge. I had to secure the pot over the flame with two bungee cords. That did the trick.

Passed our one and only islands yesterday. The Caroline Islands. We were trying to pass them to the east however the wind did not get us far enough so we passed them on the west. They are a series of atolls--most likely uninhabited (I don't know that for sure.) Saw a boat anchored off one of them. We were pretty far away. Just as we were passing we hit a big squall--winds gusting to 30 knots. When that happens we need to turn the boat away from the wind a bit (called bearing off) which stabilizes the boat more.

Saw my first several flying fish yesterday. They are amazing. They really do look like birds flying low to the water. No other wildlife other than seabirds (which Kenny would like.) Sure is hard to focus on them with the binoculars to identify them as something more than simply a seabird! This is when those self-stabilizing binocs would be great.

I am having some huge ahah moments about the night sky--moon, stars, planets. The one that I can share is the fact that the moon, sun, and the planets all appear in the sky on the same line (or arc). In other words, just before the sun rises following the same path the sun will follow during the day, you can see venus rising. The only way I can understand this is to think about the diagrams that we have seen about our solar system and how all of the planets are rotating around the sun in concentric circles (the same plane) just different diameters. On the other hand, the stars are not part of our solar system so they "rotate" in the sky as the earth rotates. Therefore the relationship between the planets and the stars is always changing--thus part of the "magic" around astrology--e.g, moon rising in Virgo, etc.

Last night we kept the bimini (canvas covering of the cockpit) up because we thought we thought it might rain. I realized how much I missed seeing the stars and learning new constellations!

Well, if I can keep my intention this morning, I plan on cooking an Asian omellete. (I'll let you know tomorrow how that goes.)

Day 4 at sea

2009-05-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here in the sweltering cabin (below deck) with the fan blowing on me and dripping sweat. It is quite pleasant on deck however we have to keep the portholes closed to keep water from drenching our berths.

Weather has been fabulous. I am out on my 2am watch with only my shorts on (and a life jacket of course).

We are all feeling a bit better regarding seasickness. None of us has resorted to a scopolamine patch---I guess kind of a macho/macha thing. I still have not turned on the burners of the stove since we have been at sea. Cooking in the galley is like trying to cook on an amusement ride. It is really incredible how much back and forth and front and back motion there is constantly. It is really tricky just doing simple things. I will keep you posted. It adds a whole nother dimension to creative cooking!

We had an awful smell immenating from one of the galley cupboards. We couldn't figure out what is was AND knew that it just kept getting worse--not conducive to our getting over our seasickness. Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and pulled every think out of the cupboard--in pitching seas--and found a rotten cabbage. Oh my goodness, did it smell. Had to clean the cupboard out with bleach before the smell went away. We were able to eat a cole slaw last night in spite of the bad cabbage experience.

Personal hygiene is tough. We are preserving our "fresh" water so we are using water from the water maker (desalinization unit) to wash our bodies. Washing involves going below deck for an extended period of time so it has not sounded fun. I finally took my first sponge bath last night after coming off my watch at 4am. It is quite a bit cooler at night so that helps. I am pretty much just living in shorts and sandals. Fortunately, we all stink.

We see some birds at sea--petrels, terns, shearwaters. Hope to see an albatross. Except for a big black dorsal fin that I saw a couple of days ago, no sea life. Lal has seen some flying fish that are pretty common out here.

Well that's it for now.

Day 3 at Sea

2009-05-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the first morning at sea that I have felt like writing anything. All three of us have been seasick (with nausea and no vomiting.) We have all taken turns having to go "below" (into the cabin) to get crackers, applesause, and other things we feel like eating. It has been very easy for "Cookie" the cook so far :)

This is our second morning at sea (April 15th). We have been sailing for 2 days and covered about 240 nautical miles (6000 feet to a NM). Hawaii is about 2500 NM.

The skipper, Brad, and first mate, Lal, are great. Very easy going and great (and patient) teachers. I really have lost my desire to learn anything new while I have been feeling crumby--so it is coming back.

We are on a starboard tack all the way to Hawaii. That means that the wind is coming from the NE to E and over our starboard (right) bow. The wind direction has been a bit of a surprise to Captain Brad because the prevailing wind at this longitude below the equator come from the SE. That would give us a much smoother sail (less heeling/leaning) which makes it hard to move around the cabin.

We have split the helm responsibility into watches. Our watches are thus:
6-10am Lal
10am-2pm Chip
2pm-6pm Brad
6-8pm Lal
8-10pm Chip
10pm-midnight Brad
Midnight-2am Lal
2am -4am Chip
4am-6am Brad

The person on watch must be in the cockpit watch our speed, direction, and wind direction. Fortunately this boat has a self steering mechanism that is so cool (and complicated) that I can't even describe it. Basically you set it for a certain direction (it is kind of like a wind rudder combined with a short water rudder and is attached by ropes (lines) and pulleys (blocks) to the steering wheel (helm). There are small adjustments that we can make but basically since this is a straight shot to Hawaii and the winds are fairly consistent, very little is needed. The other job of the person on watch is to look at the stars at night--and there are lots of them. Since we have been at sea, I have been less interested in learning. I think I am ready again. In addition, the watch person scans the horizon for other boats--probably will not see one on this leg--as well as determine whether the sail configuration needs to be changed due to change in wind speed or direction.

Sleeping arrangements are interesting. We are doing hot swap bunking meaning that we are rotating beds. When I come off watch I sleep wherever Brad had been sleeping, etc. We simply carry our sleeping sheets and pillows with us. Sleeping is not the most restful; however, it is getting easier.

Brad (through Sally) has been doing daily posts to the blog--which Kathy has the URL if you need it. In addition, I sent Kathy a link to be able to watch our progress on a map as our little boat moves towards Hawaii.

I had fun speaking French in Tahiti (French Polynesia). It actualy was quite handy. Also had a chance to speak some Italian.

That's it for today.

2009-05-03T08:45:00.000-07:00