Day 12 - Pacific Indeed

May 20 - Today the Pacific is true to its name. The ocean is as flat as a
pancake. Smooth as a baby's bottom. And not a breath of wind.

Oddly, it didn't make us restless, as it has in the past. We used the flat
seas to work on a couple projects that we wouldn't otherwise do while
underway. John fixed the bow nav light, whose connections had corroded. I
cleaned the head. Fun stuff like that. We also enjoyed lounging in the
cockpit without any danger of being doused with spray. It was a good day.

Besides, our friend John has just made landfall in Kodiak, Alaska, and he
tells us that it is 8'C in the boat with the heater on. Brrr. He's advised
us to take it slow, and wait for Alaska to warm up. Sounds like good advice
to me!! :O)

Good news - we caught another Mahi-mahi last night. And this one we kept.
Our freezer is stuffed full, but it made a wonderful dinner tonight! It is
our favourite fish out here, second only to tuna.

Life is good.


PS...for those of you who are interested in the numbers. Well I don't have
them. Handy. I'm writing from my bunk. But...I can tell you that until
today, we've been doing 120 nm per day, making about 110 of those miles in
the right direction - towards Sitka, Alaska. Not bad for us, considering
that we're beating into the wind. Today will be different. After coasting
along at 2 knots for most of the afternoon, I can only imagine what our
daily total will be. Still, we have around 2700 miles to go...or something
like that.

Check our daily position reports here:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 9 - 3000 nm to go!

Thursday, May 17 - Our 9th day at sea, and the GPS tell us we have 3000
miles to go! That's a quarter of the way completed! Hurray.

So, today was a celebration. I baked bread. Which is not a big deal on many
boats out here. But for me, it's a pretty big deal. I never bake bread on a
passage. In fact, I hardly ever bake bread at anchor. Banana bread - yes.
Bread bread - no.

So for lunch, egg salad sandwiches on fresh foccacia bread. Yum.

For dinner, fried pork chops and onions with potato salad. And Reese's
Peanut Butter Cups for dessert. YUM.

And...just as we finished doing the dishes, a fish hit!! We caught a big
Mahi Mahi!! But once again, it was too big. We still have meat in the
freezer, so we let it go. We were hoping for a little tuna for our
celebratory meal, but this fish would have been wasted. But it did give me
some hope. I haven't seen anything out here - not a single ship, only two
birds, and the occasional flying fish.

I can hardly wait for the 2000 nm celebration!!

Our position: 24-45N, 174-41E
Check our daily position reports here:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 7 - Clean and Happy

It's Tuesday May 15 - one week at sea already. And still over 3200 miles to
go. But who's counting?? We're making great progress. All our days are over
100 miles. Squalls have mellowed out in the last few days. But we still get
the occasional wave that hits us just right, and soaks us in the cockpit.
We're both ploughing through our books. All's well.

Yesterday was wash day. A big event here where we get to pour buckets of
seawater over ourselves, then a rinse with a teeny tiny sprinkle of precious
fresh water. I'm pretty certain our next boat will have a water maker. But
we're clean and happy. For now.

We both felt that the water may have been colder than we're used to. And we
feel the need for a blanket during the night watch. Maybe it is our
imaginations, maybe it is the increasing latitude. Either way, I have a
feeling our saltwater shower days may be limited.