Sunday, 10/24
14 degrees 54 minutes North
148 degrees 24 minutes West
Monday, 10/25
16 degrees 19 minutes North
150 degrees 16 minutes West
Although yesterday was another windy (25 knots), rough (up to 12 foot seas) day, there was more sunshine making it not so ominous. What a funny trick of the mind that when the sun is shining it's all very beautiful, but when clouds color everything grey and dull it looks a bit more threatening. Last night was much calmer and we were able to let out a bit more jib to keep our speed up. John says the forecast is for plenty of wind all the way to Hilo until Thursday. It looks like we may arrive before sunrise Thursday, but we've been in and out of Hilo a couple of times and it's very straightforward and doable in the dark. Now I'm hoping for some nice rain to wash the boat with after we get tied up to the dock.
Ziggy's dinner slide across the table doesn't seem to have affected him and he's been a bit nicer lately. He knows our watch routine, or rather that one of us gets up while the other one goes to bed, and he always jumps out of his bed for a walk around the cabin or a scritchy-scratch on his cardboard "post" before settling back in bed to wait for his next meal. He's been playing with toys a bit, but is dying to get out of the cockpit for a bigger leg stretch. It's been too rough this passage to take him for walks around the decks. Yesterday morning he was out the door after daylight and sniffed out the two flying fish that were still on board - one just in front of the dodger (he was still underneath the dodger and didn't figure out to go around), and one little one in the cockpit well under the dinghy gas can. I was able to toss both stiff bodies overboard before he could eat them. He is truly one of our main sources of entertainment on a long passage like this as you can tell!
I didn't sleep very well last night and am looking forward to getting a solid three hours on my long off watch later this morning. You'd think we'd fall asleep at the drop of a hat when given the opportunity, but sometimes I have trouble shutting down my brain. We are trying to time our book reading to finish before we arrive since there won't be a spare minute with all the work and play to do. But I finished one last night and will see if I can get one last trashy book read in the next two days, before returning to more leisurely literary works. Can't wait to hit the library for some DVD rentals too.
Many thanks to all the encouraging emails from friends and family who are as anxious as we are to make landfall!
Linda