HI to MX Day 25

Yay, wind! After slatting around for hours last night, we finally got enough breeze to make progress in the right direction at 0500 today. Who would have thought our biggest problem would be no wind?! We have about 950 miles to go to Manzanillo and are really hoping we don't have to make a pit stop in Cabo for fuel. That would just drag it out as far as I'm concerned, but on the other hand I'd like to motor when we need to instead of drifting along listening to the sails bang back and forth! When John got up this morning we dropped the drifter and put our big "Mexico" jib on the furler. We call it the Mexico jib because that's where we got the most use out of it before heading south. It's perfect for all the light air sailing along the coast and up in the Sea of Cortez.

Putting up the big jib seemed to work like a magnet. We got some nice wind all afternoon and even hit six knots once or twice. But the biggest charm in conjuring up the wind has been John's ukulele practice. Twice he's gotten out his uke to play in the cockpit and twice we've had wind afterwards. And we had dolphin visits again! That uke is worth every penny John paid for it.

If I made it sound like Ziggy is now a sweet kitty climbing into bed with us, that is dead wrong. He's just a heat-seeking wild child, and you better not stick your hand out to pet him while he's curled up in that cute little ball or you'll get your skin sliced. John and I both ignored the obvious signs this morning that he was beyond playing and lost in the zone of terror (huge black dilated pupils and swishing tail). John came away with a bloody stump (never use the hand as a toy!) while I was ambushed from behind and got bite marks on my calf through two layers of clothing. John grabbed him and put him outside for a timeout, after which Ziggy had the nerve to come join me in bed! His eyes were a little wide as we looked at each other, but I ignored him and he settled down. Why, oh why, do we keep this crazy cat?!

The San Diego voices on the VHF dropped off last night and we've begun hearing Spanish now. [Later: San Diego came up again late this afternoon. Must be propagation. Same thing for the PacSeaNet. John's been able to check in there the last couple of nights.] Just can't believe we're still so far away from even some place as far north as Cabo. Feels like we should really be farther south by now!

Linda

{GMST}26|19|N|120|07|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 25|Day 25{GEND}

HI to MX Day 24

I guess it's a good thing that the drifter didn't blow up the other day. The wind has all but died and the drifter is the only thing that will fill.

I tried the spinnaker this morning, but the wind is too light and it's too rolly for it to stay full. In the ships log, at 0700 this morning is the following entry:

0700-0815: Pole in (the drifter was poled out); Drifter rolled up; Spinnaker up; Pole up (spinnaker on pole); Pole down; Spinnaker wrapped on forestay; Spinnaker un-wrapped; Spinnaker down; Jibe; Drifter out; Pole up

That is A LOT of sail handling in an hour and 15 minutes, especially with the spinnaker wrap. For those of you who don't know, a spinnaker wrap is when the spinnaker, flopping back and forth in light winds, spins around forestay. The spinnaker will billow out in the middle so that there's no way for it to naturally un-wrap. Think of a hard candy wrapped in cellophane, standing on end. To get the twists out of the cellophane, you pull on both ends. But since the spinnaker is wrapped around the forestay you can't pull on the end, the forestay won't let you. I have no idea if there's a good way to undo a spinnaker wrap, but what works for me is to jibe and wait. For some reason the action that causes the wrap is reversed if you jibe, then you just wait for the wrap to undo itself and quickly take the spinnaker down before it wraps again.

That's enough spinnaker handling for a couple days for me. I'm glad we have that drifter, I just wish it was bigger.

{GMST}27|10|N|121|13|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 24|Day 24{GEND}

HI to MX Day 23

Nice sailing these last 24 hrs. The drifter has remained up even though the wind has been up to 15 kts at times. This is a little much for that old sail, but it will never get replaced if it doesn't blow up and it won't blow up if we don't fly it in too much wind :-)

It's still pretty cold, but the guys on the Chubasco net said it's supposed to warm up in Arizona soon so maybe that will come our way as well.

We caught a glimpse of dolphins one day, but mostly we hear their squeaks and clicks through the hull at night. They don't stick around for long; must just be curious about what we are, and then they go back to whatever it is they were doing somewhere else. [Later in the day: The dolphins hung around for an hour off and on this afternoon. Long enough to identify them as Common dolphins.]

A few days ago we got the binoculars out to confirm that the white albatross we were seeing was a Layson and not the rare short-tailed. This one definitely had a dark colored back.

We heard Coast Guard San Diego and Vessel Assist on the VHF for the first time this morning. You can tell it's the weekend because they've been answering a lot of non life threatening calls from pleasure boaters.

Anyway, we're making good progress for now, though it's supposed to die off later today and stay light for several days.

{GMST}28|26|N|122|57|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 23|Day 23{GEND}

HI to MX Day 22a

(I think John inadvertently skipped day 21, and that today - Feb. 4 - is really day 22.)

John put the drifter (light air sail) up yesterday and we went slow ( < 3 knots) for several hours. He also decided that we probably shouldn't have tacked and made all that northing since the forecast is for light winds all the way to the coast. We don't want to be sailing dead downwind in light air, it would be better to be reaching. So we're sailing a little south of our course today to get into a more favorable position.

As I suspected would happen, we are losing voice communications with the Pacific Seafarers Net. Night before last they couldn't hear John and last night he couldn't hear any of them. But he continues to check-in with them via email so that our position is noted on YOTREPS. This morning he went looking for RSL and RSM on the Baja net, but guess we'll have to wait until we're close enough to get on the Sonrisa net before we can hear them (Hi, Jay and Janice!).

Today we had delicious hamburgers on fresh pita bread buns (thanks Hermy!), and we're enjoying another gorgeous sunny afternoon of easy sailing with better speeds (4.5-5.5 knots; yippee!)

Linda

{GMST}29|23.150|N|124|14.000|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 22a|Day 22a{GEND}

HI to MX Day 22

Well we've been hit by a little contrary wind so we've gone back to Port tack for a day or so. That's ok, we'd rather deal with this then have to deal with the gale force winds blowing in the Sea of Cortez and of the Southern coast of Baja California today and tomorrow. We should be back on Starboard tack by midnight tonight and then slowly getting lifted toward the mainland over the next couple of days.

No more fishing for now. I cooked the Albacore tuna last night and it was very nice, but we still have some meat in the freezer and it's possible Customs may confiscate it when we arrive in MX so we're trying to eat it all up before we arrive.

We changed the clocks last night as we are now in the Pacific Time Zone. We also changed our watch schedule so I can check into the Amigo net . Of course Don Anderson had a few deprecating words about our choice of route from Hawaii to Mexico, according to Don it's wiser to beat straight into the trade winds for 2500 miles then to sail one long tack into the Pacific High and then bear off on the opposite tack for the mainland. Frankly, I'm glad we're not bashing into 25 kts of wind right now (and I'm even more glad that we haven't had to do it for the last three weeks as well) even if we have to sail an extra 500 miles on our chosen route. To each his own I guess.

{GMST}29|58|N|125|33|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 22|Day 22{GEND}

HI to MX Day 20

John forgot to write his usual blog this morning so here we are at 4 PM local time on Wednesday, 2/2. Still having a beautiful sail although in freezing conditions. As I feared, now that we're no longer motoring the cabin temperature is about the same as the water temp - in the low sixties. Although today was sunny so we managed to get some extra warmth. John says we should only have about 4-5 more days of this bitter cold and then it will just be cold. Ziggy continues to climb into our off watch berth to take advantage of our body heat - both day and night! Yesterday John caught a small tuna of some sort. We've seen ships both last night and again today. One was a fishing boat and we're not sure where the one today was headed (somewhere due south). It's nice to be sailing and on course for our destination of Manzanillo!

{GMST}30|30.890|N|126|17.070|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 20|Day 20{GEND}

HI to MX Day 19

Wind! and wet, unfortunately. But in any case it looks like the Pacific High has finally released us and we are on our way. We're not sailing off the wind exactly, but we're not hard on the wind either.

Linda noted that there was some water in the fuel. I think it came from the fuel we got at the fuel dock in the Alawai. So note well our friends in HI, make sure to use a water trap if you get fuel there, or better yet, get your fuel via jerry jugs from the gas station. (strangely enough fuel from the gas station is cheaper then the fuel dock. This is strange because the fuel dock fuel is 'off road use' only and is died red. This means it has no road tax on it, so should be cheaper.)

1600 miles left to go to SolCasa!

{GMST}31|13|N|129|05|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 19|Day 19{GEND}

HI to MX Day 18

Nothing new to report. Still motoring along hoping any minute now for some wind. John got the drifter out this morning and we spent some time barely making headway with that. It was nice to take a break from the noise while John changed the engine oil and got some water out of the fuel. Yesterday he transferred the fuel from the jerry jugs on deck to the tank and noticed a considerable amount of water in them. I've also noticed a fair amount of condensation in various cupboards below.

The big news of the day is that Ziggy actually slept with me this morning. He has never slept with us on our bed. When he was a kitten he was too little to jump up to the Pullman and we didn't encourage it. As an adult he has a very strict sense of personal space (we get lots of "don't touch me" nips), and he won't sit in our laps or even climb over us to get by. So imagine my surprise when he slipped into the quarter berth after I had settled in for my morning off watch. I was so pleased by this new behavior that I didn't want to move for fear of disturbing the moment. I didn't sleep very well, but it was extremely satisfying to break this barrier at last. He will be the happiest of we three when the engine finally gets shut down, though I don't know what we'll do then for heat!

{GMST}31|25.090|N|130|43.170|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 18|Day 18{GEND}

Sunday, 1/30

Today is windless with the winter sun barely warming us in a breeze of our own creation. A storm petrel flits across our bow. Looking down over the side of the boat I see streaks of bleached indigo where the sun's rays dive into the deep of a glassy calm. A heavy looking white-bodied albatross glides over the contours of the swells like an ultra-light. Is it the rare short-tailed albatross or a more common Laysan? If I get another chance, I'll have to look more closely to see if the white extends over the back of the body making it the former. Later in the afternoon I surprise a pair of black-footed albatross as I come out into the cockpit. They are close enough for me to make out the white patch at the base of their beaks on an otherwise wholly black body. It seems as if the albatross only come in close to the boat when there's no one on deck, making it difficult to get a good identification.

We are drinking tea and hot chocolate on a regular basis now. Enjoying the restful calm, but anxious to turn off the deafening engine and begin sailing to warmer latitudes!

Linda

HI to MX Day 17

Not much to report today. We've been motoring almost all the time with very short periods of sailing. We've gone through about 40 gallons of fuel, we have another 70 in the tank and 12 in jugs as emergency fuel. Hopefully we'll get some wind tomorrow and can start sailing again.

One good thing about all this calm weather, yesterday we were able to take showers for the first time in the trip.

The weather continues to cool, as is the water temperature. Last night we saw 61 degrees, the low of the trip so far.

{GMST}31|23|N|132|57|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 17|Day 17{GEND}

HI to MX Day 16

We've been motoring off and on, in between some nice light air sailing off the wind. I hate to jinx it, but this is really nice! Yesterday morning we got enough of a light but steady rain to wash most of the salt off the boat. It cleared before Noon and I got out there with a rag to wipe the rest of it off before it dried. This makes life much more pleasant for John when he has to go forward for sail handling duties. Some days are still mostly cloudy or have that hazy winter sunshine, but today has been very nice with lots of warm sun. In fact it was so nice and calm (motoring) that John decided we should take showers! He got the Honda generator out to run the water heater, and emptied the shower stall of all the junk we had stored there (including two jerry jugs of water which he put in the tank). Normally our head, which is up in the bow of the boat, is probably the roughest place to be. It's the place where I'm most likely to crash into things because it's difficult to brace myself anywhere. But today it was perfect and we are very happy to be really clean again.

Ziggy is happy whenever we shut the motor off to sail. He's also enjoying the freedom to roam the decks outside since it's calm enough for him to go forward during the daytime. He'd like to do it at night as well, but we don't let him out after dark.

John got the regulator working at 100% again! He took it out of the engine compartment and carefully washed it with fresh water and let it dry all day. Then checking it over found a couple of broken wires which he soldered back in place. He says this would have been impossible had it not been calm as the wires are very small and soldering them would be hard enough without having the boat roll back and forth. He re-installed it and now it charges fully just like it used to. It's a good thing, because while he was removing it for cleaning he dropped the light bulbs he was using to get the thing working and one of them broke. That's 2 out of 3 broken, we're down to our last one. Hopefully we won't have to resort to the light bulbs again for a while.

We're counting the miles until we can make that right hand turn!

{GMST}31|17|N|134|36|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 16|Day 16{GEND}

Provisioning Tip - Baby Wipes

NOTE: The information which follows may be too personal for those with delicate sensibilities. Read at your own risk of embarrassment.

And now a word about personal hygiene on a long ocean voyage - particularly for those boats: still without water makers; which aren't particularly sea kindly; or which are traveling in cold waters. There are many times when it simply isn't practical to take a full shower. You may be conserving water by taking occasional salt water baths out in the cockpit. If you're fortunate enough to have plenty of fresh water and a below deck shower, you might be sailing hard on the wind for days at a time, which would make taking a slippery shower a risky proposition. And even if you are lucky enough to be sailing downwind in the tropics, with the sweat rolling off your palms as you update blog entries on your lap top, you'll most likely want a refreshing pick-me-up in between showers.

We recently met a man from South Korea (with the improbable, but highly pronounceable name of "Doug") who completed a 30-plus day passage from Los Angeles to Hawaii on a small sailboat fraught with breakdowns of every sort. After making landfall he was given a ride in a car to Customs to clear in. During this brief trip he was very embarrassed by and profusely apologized in broken English for his 30-plus day ripening odor. This got me to ruminating about baby wipes.

Not actually baby wipes, but "adult" wipes. Because what you really want to avoid are the sickly sweet, highly perfumed wipes that leave a weird slippery film on your skin. This is what you'll be stuck buying in some place like the Galapagos if you haven't thought it out ahead of time. These are better than nothing at all, but you'll never be able to appreciate the scent of a clean baby's bottom again in your life.

Wipes are a great way to get relief from that sticky, sweaty feeling before climbing into a berth left hot and damp by the crew member coming on watch (preferably your spouse and not some backpacker you picked up in Panama City). (By the way, I think this is why it's called "hot bunking.") Even sailing in cold climates you'll appreciate being able to hit the three hot spot areas - pits, crotch, and dogs - with a quick and easy spit bath. (Don't forget to add a generous swipe of Tom's of Maine deodorant to your pits to keep those pesky bacteria at bay!)

Which brings me to my personal recommendations based on six Equator crossings in the past three years. Forget anything clearly marked for babies if at all possible. Our most recent best buy has been the Walmart house brand (Equate) "Naturally Gentle Wipes" which are hypo-allergenic and alcohol free. The wipes themselves are on the small side, but that makes it easier to dedicate each one to a particular "hot spot." (I don't know about you but there isn't a hot spot I'd want to wipe after either of the other two.) When you get to Papeete (you are going to French Polynesia, aren't you?) be on the lookout for the Carrefour brand wipe called "Absodys" (which must be French for something, but I couldn't find it in my pocket dictionary), which is specifically marketed for athletic adults. These are alcohol-free and are a large size which tears easily into - you guessed it - three convenient pieces.

So when you finally step on shore after a long passage at sea I hope these thoughts about baby wipes will make your first encounter with a clean person a pleasant one!

HI to MX Day 15

Well I got the alternator working, if not charging then at least not draining the batteries while we're motoring. Which is a good thin considering we've been motoring 15 of the last 24 hours. The regulators are still out of commission, but I managed to get the alternator to trickle charge by wiring two 15 watt 12 VDC incandescent light bulbs in series. 12 V is attached on one side and the alternator field terminal on the other. The lights light dimly and the alternator charges at about 5 amps. It's no three stage charger but it's better then nothing and now the engine room has a nice cozy night-light.

The wind is forecast to be light the next couple days and then we may finally reach the eastern edge of the pacific high where we'll get some North-ish winds to be able to head South.

The water temperature continues to drop, 65 degrees today, but because the humidity has returned it doesn't seem so cold.

We ate the last of the oranges from Robert and Kelita on Freedom yesterday. We have a few store bought oranges but I'm not holding out that they will be as sweet or juicy as the ones from R&K.

{GMST}30|40|N|137|00|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 15|Day 15{GEND}

Thursday, 1/27

If passage making could only be this pleasant all the time! Since Tuesday the wind and seas have calmed and we're no longer making slow progress pounding into every wave. Instead we're now actually sailing wing and wing (downwind), making speeds up to 6.5 knots. It's so comfortable that we're well rested and fed and it's a pleasure to do things like write blogs. At the moment the wind is in the process of dying but we had it with us for longer than forecasted so we're happy.

In addition to the plastics passing with regularity (another water bottle, another fishing float, and a kitchen step stool are among the identifiable objects) we overtook a fleet of sailor-by-the-wind jelly fish. I'm not sure that's their official name but it's apt. They are made up of a vivid blue oval-shaped "body" (or foot) that floats on the surface of the water. Sticking up above the water from the body is a translucent oval-shaped "sail." The sail slants diagonally across the body from upper right to lower left, giving the jelly the ability to sail. The sail is only about the size of a walnut and looks like a bubble on the water when the sun hits it. When the wind is calm enough that there are no white-caps you can clearly see their little wakes as they sail across the breeze. We used to see these on trips out to the San Francisco Farallon islands.

Ziggy had a bit of a rough morning on Wednesday. After the almost all-nighter we pulled Tuesday night with the engine snafu I was cat-napping pretty hard on my pre-dawn watch. I caught him eating a rubber band he'd found tucked away in a supposedly cat proof corner. I confiscated what remained of the first rubber band and found one more he hadn't gotten to yet. I figured it would pass through as they have before. But in my groggy state I ignored or didn't hear the rest of his forays into the world of plastics and discovered later that he had torn quite a raged hole in our bag of plastic bags. I fed him his usual breakfast and went off to bed when John came on watch. I got up a few hours later and John had been stuck cleaning up the resulting mess, most of which landed in Ziggy's "binky" - a handkerchief that serves as his security blanket. We're probably lucky that it all came out the front end instead of getting twisted up in his gut. I don't know what makes him want to chew through bags that don't even have food in them, but I'd guess it's boredom. Why don't they make something like a rawhide chew for cats? Could you give a cat one of those little chew sticks they make for miniature dogs?

We made a time change on 1/25 as we crossed 142.5 degrees of longitude into a new time zone. We set our clocks forward one hour and now the sun rises at 0700. We're hoping to be able to check in to the Amigo net soon, and we actually heard Net Control calling Robert on Harmony (a long time fixture in Mexico) the other morning.

The water temperature has dropped below 70 degrees since Tuesday morning and the low so far has been 66.4. I still haven't worn any fleece yet! I'm determined to hold out for as long as I can. Interestingly, I think Ziggy is holding onto his fur coat since he doesn't seem to be shedding as much as usual. Which means we'll have a mess when things do finally start warming up and he drops several week's worth of hair everywhere. He hates to be brushed which makes it a real headache to keep the hair off of everything.

John says he thins I'm losing weight, which was nice to hear until I asked him how he could tell. "Because you're getting a chicken neck," he replied. Oh well, I'll take the bad with the good...

HI to MX Day 14

We had a really nice day yesterday with a 15 knot breeze just aft of the beam and flat seas. I left all sail up well into the afternoon and by the time we pulled down the first reef we were going an average of 6.8 kts. Early this morning the wind backed off a bit and shifted more aft, so I had to put out the whisker pole and drop the staysail. We slowed a little but are still moving along very well.

We crossed the half way point yesterday, not half way between Hawaii and Mexico, but half way between Hawaii and California. I knew this part of the trip was going to be hard, we're a short 10 days sail away from any number of wonderful places to stop (San Francisco, Halfmoon Bay, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, Longbeach, San Diago ...) so the urge to stop and rest is pretty strong. But our plan is to keep sailing another 3 or more weeks all the way down to the Mexican mainland. The thing that will keep us going is the realization that if we stop we still have to make all those miles to get to Mexico anyway. So we might as well stay at sea and get to our destination, especially now that we have the wind at our backs!

{GMST}29|57|N|139|00|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 14|Day 14{GEND}

HI to MX Day 13

Well we had our first major failure of the passage last night.

About 10pm I started the motor because the wind had died (we've finally got close enough to the Pacific High to get light winds) and shortly after I put the engine in gear the depth sounder started beeping madly. On the screen it said the battery voltage was too high and I should turn off the sounder. I checked the battery monitor and sure enough, the alternator was putting 55 amps into the batteries at 16.5 volts! (The maximum should be 14.4 volts).

I quickly shut off the motor and removed the cover to find a sea water hose had blown in such a way that salt water was spraying all the way across the engine compartment and onto the alternator regulator! We have a primary regulator and a backup mounted next to each other and both were soaked.

I quickly turned off all electrical to the motor and rinsed down both regulators with fresh water. Then I put a fan on them to dry. In the mean time Linda got under the pullman birth to get out a spare hose.

With the hose replaced and the regulators dried out I started the motor to see if we could still charge the batteries, no luck. One regulator is completely shot and the second will only charge until the batteries are 85% full.

On top of it all, the battery charger which we run on the our Honda generator, also got sprayed. So this morning I took it out and check to see if it had gotten water inside. It looked clean so after re-installing it I ran the generator and thank god, the battery charger works.

I'm a little leery of using the malfunctioning regulator, but I hate the idea of running the engine without any charge going into the batteries. I have a few 1/2 watt resistors on board so I'm going to look through some of my electrical books to see if I can hard wire a circuit that will keep us charging without frying the batteries.

The good news is we seem to have (nearly) turned the corner. If we can make another 400 miles in 3-4 days we can get to the eastern edge of a new High pressure system that's building in and then it's downhill all the way to Mexico!

{GMST}21|32.420|N|152|34.228|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 13|Day 13{GEND}

Tuesday, 1/25

Well, if you'd told me back January 25, 1991 that we'd be spending our 20th wedding anniversary out in the middle of the Pacific ocean, I'd have said you were nuts. But here we are, celebrating romance on the high sea, with icy toes and fingers, drippy noses, greasy hair, and smelly arm pits. I know there's a silver lining in there somewhere! Considering the fact that we will also be marking our 20th year of living full time aboard Nakia this coming October, I'd say John and I make a pretty good team.

In other news:

The most important item is, with help from Philip on Carina, we've learned a new way to distribute the blog reports directly to our loyal readers. So if you're tired of pulling up the blog daily only to find there's been no new updates in a week, send us an email (trusted friends and family will have our Sailmail address already) and let us know if you want to receive everything that's posted, or only the particularly interesting reports (author's choice). We blog our passage reports daily (these are usually short) and our cruising reports are written a few times a week depending on what we're doing. We can always start you out with everything and if you get tired of too much email from us, you can request the more infrequent reports or be removed entirely. But we won't add you to the distribution list until we hear from you first!

We're seeing a surprising amount of garbage on this passage, although according to Ralph on Our Country Home, Google Earth indicates that we're passing through the area of the floating plastics raft (which by the way, is a bit of an urban legend - it's not actually a raft you can see on the surface, and it's definitely not the size of Texas). Considering we rarely, if ever, saw plastic on the runs between French Polynesia and Hawaii, it's a bit of a shock to see bits and pieces on a fairly regular basis. Especially when you take into account how little time we spend up on deck. This morning while John did email over the HF radio I hand steered for about 20 minutes and saw a water-logged plastic pearl farm type buoy, a bottle, misc. plastic pieces, and we actually crossed a thin current line of small plastics and natural debris running off either side of the boat.

John is letting his beard grow and probably won't shave until we get somewhere warm! He hasn't been getting in much time on his uke. It's been too bouncy to do any serious practicing.

This morning we're motoring under cold and cloudy skies. The sea surface temperature has occasionally dipped below 70 degrees these past few days!

{GMST}27|54|N|142|33|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 12|Day 12{GEND}

HI to MX Day 11

Another squally day and night aboard NAKIA. The weather has been pretty difficult the last couple of days. First the wind backs off to almost nothing (10 kts). It stays that way for anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour, and we bob around with very little sail up waiting for the inevitable 25-30 kts squall that lasts about the same amount of time. So half the time we're barely moving and the other half the time it feels like we're going to fly apart. This makes it very hard to make progress.

Later today the wind is supposed to shift into the south again, in advance of a front which we hope will push us close to our turning point (now estimated at 32.5 N 135 W). That is 550 mile away and normally I would figure we'd be there in 5 days, but at this rate I think it will take 7-8 days. We'll see.

If anyone is interested, we've sailed about 1050 miles so far, and are a mere 775 miles from Hilo. That's an average speed of just over 3 knots. Not great, in fact not even good...

{GMST}26|39|N|143|6|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 11|Day 11{GEND}

HI to MX day 10

We had a very mellow night last night wind wise, the only problem being that it was very shifty, so we were on deck several times adjusting sails and starting/stopping the motor.

Very overcast today and still pretty old.

Not much else to report. All is well.

{GMST}26|11|N|143|46|W|Hawaii to Mexico Day 10|Day 10{GEND}

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}