Smart Readers

We are so lucky to have readers much smarter than us! Without the internet, news and a vast library aboard, we do depend on our informed audience to help us when we are confounded or just plain wrong! So here is a correction and some info regarding some recent entries.

We wrote about the doldrums and said they were also called the Horse Latitudes. From Kathryn comes this correction:
Minor point of clarification, the Horse Latitudes are actually around 30-35 deg.
N or S--they are the dead winds between the trades and the roaring 40s. The
equatorial dead zone is the doldrums.

Plus we were curious about the waving sea lions. Tom writes us that that is the way the critters cool themselves. Though we still like to think of them as a synchronized swim team minus the goofy swim caps, nose plugs and waterproof makeup.

We are into Day Nine of the Pacific Passage. We have finally picked up some wind and actually made a 100 mile day. We still have a lot to make up for those first few days of barely making 30 miles. We could have walked faster – that is if we could walk on water!

Last night (Saturday, 3/31) we started sailing around 10 pm and by early Sunday morning around 1 am we were flying at 6 to 7 knots (thanks to a current as well). We hit highs of 7.9 knots and kept a steady pace over 6 knots for about 10 hours. That was nice. It finally felt like progress. There is a lot of convection around and we see lightning around us and big clouds. We had one very rainy night on Friday night and got soaked with about 7 hours of nonstop rain. Though we recently added waterproofing to the bimini – it did manage to leak profusely. We had to dry out all the seat cushions, rain gear and clothes the next day when the sun finally came out. That was the first real rain we've had for a long time, so the decks, solar panels and gear enjoyed a much needed rinse off.

The seas have been pretty steep with swell as well as wind chop. This keeps the boat a bit uncomfortable. It's challenging to cook, clean and do projects when you are heeled over and bouncing around. That's why there hasn't been a log entry for a few days. Just too crappy to sit below and do it.

But we are making progress and when we are sailing well we like it a lot. When we sit and rock and drift and the sails clang – we wonder why people think we are living their dream.

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