Into the Tropics

0800 Position 21-01N 124-29W. Days run 185 miles.

It's hard to believe, but it was even calmer yesterday than the day before. There were more waves in the Newport Harbor Basin Marina than there are out here. For much of the day there wasn't a breath of breeze either. The water has been mirror smooth as we power south. During my 4AM watch this morning it was so smooth that you could see the stars of the Milky Way reflecting off the ocean surface.

For the past couple of days the Pacific had been completely devoid of life except for the five souls on Van Diemen and a couple of ships passing through the area that we saw on AIS. No birds, no fish, no marine mammals, no pollution.. Nothing. This morning just as dawn was breaking Longy and I saw a couple of flying fish. Then we saw a couple of birds. Just as the sun was rising over the horizon. wham! Triple strike on the lures. Two fish hooked up and we landed a couple of seven pound aku, one each on Longy and my lures. Longy's aku might have been a little bigger than mine, but mine hooked up first which got the whole shooting match started so I am calling this first battle of fishing wars a tie. Looks like fish for dinner tonight!

We're all over-rested now. With the auto pilot driving the boat, there isn't much to do but eat, sleep, socialize and read. There are still some boat projects to work on during daylight hours. Yesterday Longy made some adjustments to the mainsail reefing system and I put the pieces together to install the new but too-short inner forestay. The HAM radio system we use for email communications wasn't working well. I read the manual and determined that some of the communications settings were incorrect. I changed them and the system is working better. We've got a few more issues to resolve in the next few days. The main engine heated water heater isn't working, and we aren't sure why. It is plumbed directly to the engine's cooling system, so it should be foolproof. Our work around has been to run the 220 volt generator which will heat the water for our critical daily hot showers with the hot water tank's integral resistance heating element. It's a waste to run both the generator and main engine though so we need to figure out what the problem is with the engine heated system.

Rob was our chef last night, and he took advantage of the calm weather to cook some New York steaks with carrots, asparagus, and a salad. He had intended to grill the steaks, but there is something wrong with the new barbeque's pressure regulator so he fried them in the galley. The steaks were great and we have something else to fix tomorrow.

The main reason I wanted to go on this adventure was to sail with Rob again. I first sailed with him when I was a twenty one year old kid just graduated from college. I was already a pretty good sailor, but Rob taught me a lot about ocean racing, seamanship, and leadership during our two voyages together to the South Pacific in 1976 and 1978. Time has aged us all, but Rob is still the same competent seaman and good humored skipper that he was forty years ago.

It is starting to warm up as we get south now. Yesterday afternoon I was relaxing in the cockpit, basking in the sun, reading a book, and enjoying music on the stereo. The cold and challenges of getting this voyage underway were behind us. Ahead lies perfect weather and tropical islands. It occurred to me that there is no place on earth that I'd rather be than right here.