04:17.00S

148:08.60W

Thom and Tristan are playing guitars harnessed onto the aft deck, and singing by the natural skylight; a normal evening activity here..     We still have lots (15 knots) of apparent wind from a favorable direction so we are fortunate.  This is especially so because the grib files all show no wind or very light wind from due south.  There is till time for them to be right. 

Tonight Tristan cooked the rest of the mahi mahi and served it with pasta.  Today, most went swimming after we took down the sails to slow the boat to check the prop; it is making funny noises.  We finally located the source of the bad smell near the mast; a bag of very rotten avocadoes we forgot we had.  Today, we did a successful running fix of the sun with the sextant.  We got our fix to be closer than 6/10 mile from the GPS position. Still making water out of….

We are doing 8 knots and the water rushing by the hull continues to demand attention.

As I was talking with Tristan, the significant change out here, is one goes from the normal land based life where “time” is the precious, evanescent and insufficient priority; to our sea going existence where “time” is almost infinite, in excessive quantities, and the challenge is to fill it to advantage.  Some have an easier time than others.  No fish caught  today.

I see the crew is now reading the guide book to Tahiti.  Land fever cannot be far off.  Tahiti is: 740 miles away.

babelfish