19:05.98S

179:56.97W

100 miles to fiji

It is now  9am Friday.  We had a great sail yesterday in glorious weather.  As you have read, we caught a wahoo fish and Thom expertly cooked it after filleting it on a very angled rolling deck.  We now have fish for a week.

We had some excitement at 1am when Dick saw a bright light just 3 miles in front of us.  We identified it as a cruise ship.  It had huge white lights and this made it difficult to pick up red and green running lights to help establish its direction. Initially we had some confusion as to which way it was going and at first headed into its path,(we had marked it on the radar as 3 miles away) and instantly saw the bearing was not changing so we were on a collision course.  We then saw the red and green lights and then tacked away from our course and quickly saw the bearing change, so we were out of its way, and it quickly disappeared over the horizon.

Now that we were into our second night at sea, we have settled into the nice easy going rhythm of non stop sailing; the boat is very quiet as one or two people are always generally sleeping or in their bunks anyway.  It is very peaceful and relaxing; the familiar sounds of water and wind rushing by; are the dominant senses felt, in addition of course to the rolling of Babelfish.  It is pronounced as we are sailing on a very broad reach with the wind coming from the back corner, or more properly quarter of the boat.  The more normal trade winds seem to have returned; 20 knots from southeast so hopefully the ride in to Fiji will be good.

Last night was exquisite; full moon lighting the sky, stars visible in partly clear heavens; easy roll of Babelfish as we slid effortlessly down wave after wave, each of which made its familiar whooshing whispering sound as it released us to the next crest of sea.  These types of nights are what it is about; this is why we put up with the crap of the 40 knot squalls.  We are now through the worst of the path of uncharted reefs near Fiji.  We only hope the political situation there is somewhat sane.  We expect to arrive there about midnight.  We will have to remain on board until we can check in tomorrow morning ( I hope they are open on the weekend)

For those of you who are wondering who Dick is, as he did not send in his bio, he is newly retired, having just sold his software firm, Avanti Computer.  He is a fellow member of Island Yacht Club in Toronto.  He went to MIT for engineering.  He is starting  to learn how to spend his retirement and this trip is part of it.

Both Dick, who sails his boat in Toronto, and Ken, are new to this type of offshore sailing and both have been speedy learners and of good cheer, and seem to be enjoying and appreciating their time out here on Babelfish.

Have to go to save power,

Babelfish