Day 24 - 1569 to go

Well, we're not going to win any speed records out here. We continue to
cruise along with light winds, comfortable for the most part, just a little
chilly.

I baked scones for breakfast as an excuse to run the oven for a while.

As I write, we have the cabin heater burning merrily. It's the first time it
has been run in three years. It's not as warm as I remember. I also have the
CO detector turned on - that thing freaks me out.

At least I have a cozy pair of slippers. John just has two pairs of white
cotton socks. Yuck. Yesterday, I offered to make him fleece slippers from
some fleece scraps we have aboard. It was my domestic goddess emerging. I
wrapped the fleece around his legs, and then used my trusty stapler to close
up the seams. Trimmed the excess with my scissors, and presto magic!! They
are the ugliest looking things I've ever seen, but he did claim that they
were warm enough to make his feet sweaty, which he decided was a good thing.
(Addendum...he later noted that the staples didn't hold, and I spent three
hours hand-stitching them - not my original intention, but I could hardly
deny the guy, right)??

Obviously, not much going on or I would not be describing our clothing
choices and breakfast menu. We saw the sun today, for the first time in 5
days. We've spent 4 days shrouded in a blanket of fog, that made watch
keeping feel absolutely futile. We've seen a couple more ships. And we
caught and lost an albacore tuna (not winning any awards there either),
which we are grieving.

We also did a mid-ocean service of our port genoa winch.

At least we're getting lots of sleep...

-----
Today's noon report:
Position: 39-52N, 166-22W
1589 nm to Sitka, Alaska
2627 travelled so far
Ave spd 4.8 knots
24 hr DOG: 112 nm
24 hr DMG: 108 nm
Course: 040T
Speed: 4.5 knots

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 20 - 1/2 Way to Sitka

Today is May 27, our 20th day at sea, and we're 1/2 way to Sitka Alaska!!
Aboard the good ship Renova, we'll take that as an excuse for a party. A
chocolate party, that is!! Before leaving Majuro, we bought each other
little gift packages that we could open for our 1/2 way point. Majuro isn't
exactly a shopping meca, and it wasn't surprising that when we each opened
our gifts, we were treated to chocolates! Needless to say, it was a good
day, and the snack cupboard has been refilled!

We rounded out the celebrations by having hot, fresh water sink baths,
changing the sheets on the bunk, and eating the last of our frozen chicken.
I know, I can see it now. You're shaking your head at our crazy party animal
antics. Ok ok. We'll calm down.

Let's hope we do the next 1000 miles in less than 11 days. Anyone care to
venture a guess on our Sitka arrival date?

---
Winds have rotated around in the last few days, coming from the South.
Sometimes even South west. Crazy, but good. We're now heading directly
east. This helps us make some good miles before moving north to colder
latitudes. But, more importantly, it keeps us below the nasty looking low
pressure systems that are roving around to the north of us. We'd much prefer
to stay on the edge of the high, if possible.

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 18 - SLOW and steady

May 25th today...and not much to report. Days are all melding together, not
much to differentiate one day from the next. Caught our third mahi mahi.
Still no tuna, although we think this is prime tuna fishing grounds. We saw
our second ship.

We haven't had to turn on the motor in a couple days, but we haven't been
making good time. The wind has been circling from all directions, and we are
often fiddling with sails to keep moving in the right direction. Yesterday,
we made 100 miles, but only 70 towards Sitka. Our worst yet. We completed
our first 1000 miles in 9 days. This second thousand is looking like it will
take 12 days.

One reason is we aren't able to point very high into the wind these last
couple of days. We dropped our genoa to investigate what we thought was a
few loose stitches. Unfortunately, the damage was more extensive, with many
critical seams at the leech and clew completely failing. What a drag. We
even had it reinforced in Majuro in preparation for the trip. Oh well. Just
too much rotten thread after all this time in the sun. So we've hoisted our
old genoa that has been sitting in the laz for three years. We laughed when
we dragged it out. It is filthy. And paper thin. We ripped it almost top to
tail when we first had the boat and I did an insane patch job, with all the
sail tape that I could buy on the island! It looks like a jigsaw puzzle. So
we're handling it with care, gently nudging it along, and hoping it will
last a few more weeks.

If need be, we could repair the newer genoa, but I'd much rather have it
stitched with a proper machine (mine doesn't have a zig zag stitch). So
we'll wait and see. I could repair it by hand, but the sail is huge, not
sure how we'd manage it inside, or in the cockpit, and it would take several
days with both of us working at it!

Noon Report:
Position: 34-30N, 178-17W
2191 nm to Sitka, Alaska
1908 travelled so far
Ave spd 4.7 knots
23 hr DOG: 99nm
23 hr DMG: 67 nm

(23 hrs, because we just moved the clocks forward, ship's time is now
-11UTC).

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 16 - Brrr

In two days, the temps have dropped ten degrees. On Tuesday, I was wearing a
bikini. Today, I'm bundled in fleece and trying to remember where we stashed
the mittens. 18 degrees may not sound cold to you, but, it feels arctic to
us. We had expected cold, but I hadn't thought it would hit so soon...we're
only at 31 degrees north - same latitude as San Diego.

The last two days have also brought us wind! Mostly from the NW (hence the
cool air), giving us a push in the right direction. It is a bit squally and
we're forever making sail adjustments, but we're pleased with our progress.

The boat has been great. We snapped one Monitor (self-steering) line, but it
was fixed instantly. We found a pile of my clothes had been soaked from a
port hole not closed. Meh. We've just noticed our headsail leech is looking
ragged, so we'll be looking for n opportunity to bring it down to the deck
for inspection and possibly repair.

Today, we'll cross the dateline again...we look forward to our return to the
western hemisphere.



Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 15 - Ship Ahoy

Saw our first ship out here! First, the AIS let us know it was 10 miles
away. I was able to see it when it was6 miles off, and it finally passed
about 1.5 miles to out stern. It was a huge fuel carrier. Nice to have some
company out here, and a reminder that we're likely getting closer to common
shipping routes.

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.

Day 5 - Heading North

It's day five. Sunday May 13. We're finally getting our sea legs, but we're
certainly not produuctive people. We work to make the boat go forward. We
report our daily position via radio. We expend minimal efforts to get food
and water in us (and out). And we lie horizontally - mostly reading or
sleeping. That is it. Oddly, it isn't boring. It just isn't anything.

We're moving along well. Winds are NE, so we're heading straight north. We
hope that winds will veer to the south, so we'll be able to make some
easting. But we're not anxious yet. We want to be far enough north, that we
can go around the top of the North Pacific High. We don't want to be caught
in the windless middle.

Conditions are fine. We've got gusty wind conditions, so lots of changes
with the headsail - furled out, furled in, repeat. Swell is 2-3 meters, with
an occasional one splashing clear over the boat, turning us into a
submarine, and soaking the less-than-amused person in the cockpit. It would
be funny if we were on the outside looking in.

So that's it from us, for now. Thanks for your emails...we really enjoy
reading them. Maybe we'll be feeling more able to write emails in the coming
days.

If you'd like to follow our daily progress, you can check out our position
(which we submit by radio) at this link:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

3600nm to go... Maybe. I can't really be bothered to get up and look.

We're Outta Here

We've cleared customs and immigration. One more dinner ashore, and then
we're setting off. First north, then east. Let the fun begin...