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5.4 N 140.30 W

We are a little over 5 degrees of Longitude from equator or 300 miles. It would be foolish to estimate when we might arrive given the weather and currents. The weather system that created this mess, a trough is finally moving off to the west at 10 knots. The wind is due south, and combined with the current we are able to sail due east. We sail all day and all night due east. Tuesday night Lowry makes his famous pot-roast. It’s a four-pound chunk of meat that takes 2 days to thaw in the refrigerator. Along with potatoes, onions and gravy and we have dinner, lunch and dinner the next day. It’s a feed for crew of 8 with three on board.

We get a late start and it is 8:30pm when we start diner. The sun sets around 6:30 so by 8 it pitch dark out because the moon won’t rise till morning. The stars, billion and billions of starts are out and we reef in the jib to level the boat. We sit in the cockpit with the milky way overhead and warm wind over the starboard side of the boat. It’s a mid-pacific picnic dinner, with entertainment provided by the heavens and sky.

We ease along all night and morning with 10 to 12 knots of wind till about 9am Wednesday the wind start backing and our heading is gaining more and more north. We tack on to a heading of 190. Through out the day we are making 190 to 200, not quite the desired heading of 150, but it’s south and we will take it. The wind builds throughout the morning and at 11am we put a reef into the main. Actually we put end up a the second reef, a little to much, but we leave it at that and the boat settles down a bit and sail a little flatter. Later when the wind drop back to the low teens we shake out the reef, but the waves have built up a bit and it is a pretty rough ride.  It much like the first couple of days out of Hawaii, the boat is shut up tight, but surprisingly it a little cooler, with temps in the low 80’s. 

When the wind is lighter we can put a tarp over the cockpit and get some respite from the sun. But Wednesday was too windy and we huddle under the dodger seeking protection from the sun and the salt spray. A quick rinse in the shower is both cooling and refreshing.

Every night around 6pm I tune up the Marine Single Side Band radio and with the computer I call the Sail Mail station to exchange our outgoing mail with the incoming mail. It usually takes 30 minutes to an hour just to get a clear channel, since the it’s like a big party line, where you can use the channel if nobody else is. It always a great pleasure to announce the crew that “The communications room has asked me to inform you that you have received a message from the mainland” We are getting more and more email these days, about 6 to 8 message a day – and send out 4 – 6 of our own.  Email certainly closes the communication gap, but it does not really make the actual act of sailing any easier. It’s certainly easier on the friends and family, since they can communicate regularly and that reassures them that we are still safe. Not to many years ago, small yachts headed out and first time that anyone would hear from them is when they arrived in port. This meant weeks if not months of anxious waiting. We have two forms of communication: the Single-Side band with which we can communicate via email and voice, and an Iridium Satellite phone. We can call anyone, and anyone can call us anywhere in the world. It’s a different world as far as communication goes, but it is pretty much the same world when you’re sailing. There is still wind, waves, currents, storms and lulls – that has not changed.

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Sailing is like running your own city. There is power, water and waste to manage. There are repairs to be made and maintenance to keep up on. It would be foolish if anyone thought that sailing were an escape. It’s a lot of responsibility, work and there is no end to it. When you are passage making, there is no place stop. You can’t just go inside at the end of the day, turn on the TV and ignore what’s going on outside. Your life and the life of your crew depends the safe handling and conduct of the vessel. It is probably as close to being in space as I am every going to experience. Only the case of threat to life would anyone come to our rescue. Even that is somewhat limited. We are more than a thousand miles from any from land. A rescue could only be made from a ship, or from an airdrop from a passing plane.