Saturday, 1/22

Yesterday's excitement was seeing two ships in one day. I spotted the first one on the AIS when it was 12 miles away and hadn't set off the eight mile perimeter alarm yet. It was headed back from Hawaii and passed astern of us when it was six miles away. We were wondering when all the ships we saw headed to Hawaii during the first days of our passage were going to go back to the mainland! The second ship passed us at 1.9 miles away in the afternoon so we got a good look at it. It was quite a third world type ship with big cranes for un/loading cargo. It was on a weird heading of 281 degrees, while the other Hawaii bound ships were on headings of around 265. So we're not sure where this guy was headed. As primitive (i.e., cheap) a model as our AIS is, it has sure been useful for spotting and tracking ships when we can't actually see them in the distance. It's also reassuring to have the MMSI number (a sort of ID) and the name of the ship appear on the display, along with the heading, course over ground, and speed of approach. That way if we're unsure of the ship's intentions we have an easy way to call them on the VHF.

Yesterday wasn't the greatest, but last night and today have been okay. I still think port tack is the worst. I like the handholds and places to brace myself much better when we're on starboard. Not sure why John always insists that port is better... We have a little more sun today to warm the cabin. Yesterday was mostly cloudy and cold. John plans to run the generator this afternoon to charge the house batteries. This will be the second time we've run it. With the wind vane in use we can't tilt the panel up on the sissy bar to maximize its output or it will throw the vane off.

Today John made a nice tomato beef pasta one pan dish for our mid-day meal. We're out of bread so we've been having cold cereal for breakfast. Instead of dinner we just snack on fruit or crackers. At this rate I'm afraid we're going to run out of crackers before we get anywhere, but John can always make some pita or bread.

Ziggy is not allowed up on deck much, and not at all after dark. It's just too rough. But one evening before sunset he got out without John noticing and went to his favorite hideaway up forward under the dinghy. But it was relatively calm and he came back in on his own after a little while. He's gotten to be a little wild child in his play and it's just as well for me that I'm almost fully dressed now (so his "attacks" don't do much damage!).

John makes noises about bearing off down to the Marquesas when he gets fed up with this beating to weather, but I do my best to keep him on track for Mexico!

{GMST}26|46|N|144|36|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 9|Day 9{GEND}