Day 5, 161 nautical miles! (555 tot) N 13 deg.23 min., W 109 deg. 57 min. 2:00PM 3/26/07 (Ginger)

We recorded our second best recorded mileage for the last 24 hours. (Our best was in December crossing the Sea of Cortez riding a Norther. We are tracking our mileage 12 noon to 12 noon each day and our mileage ending at noon today was 161 nautical miles according to our gps odometer. That's an average of 6.71 knots for the last 24 hours. We did have some very calm times yesterday afternoon and it was quite a boisterous night last night giving us such a great total. The waves were a bit rough
so it was definitely two hands for the boat weather trying to move around the boat. We needed every pillow in our sea berth to wedge ourselves in for off watch sleep. The wind is expected to be steady and possibly building. We downloaded a weather file predicting calmer wind tomorrow but we've been hearing about a storm of Oregon and California that's bringing strong winds our way. My money is on Don's forecast rather than the computer model so we're ready for as Don says "some honkin' good stuff!"

Our solar panels are keeping up nicely with our power usage. We've been using the radio a lot for net check-ins and email. We ran the water maker for an hour yesterday at peak sun, but peak sun has been marginal due to lots of cloud cover.
I'm making sure I'm on deck promptly for my watches and when I have bursts of energy I can do project for 20-30 minutes. Even writing at the computer in a moving boat that's 87 degrees inside with high humidity takes lots of energy. It's like running laps in a sauna. Peter has been very busy with boat maintenance projects, dish washing, moving ballast (beverages etc.) to the windward side and almost all of the sail changes - reef and unreef, furl and unfurl. No wonder he has an appetite. For
me ocean crossing is like any other hot strenuous exercise, definitely an appetite suppressant.

We've joined the roster for the Pacific Seafarer's net which is being forwarded to Yotreps for our position reporting. This is a site that Peter tracked for several years before we left on our trip. When I used to come home from work he would update me on how the boats on passage were faring and what the latest reports had to say as far as wind speed, direction etc. He could pull up all the boats on the roster and see them plotted across the ocean. It's been a privilege to be part of this ham
net and it's been great talking with net control in Kauai and the relays in Texas and Pitcairn Island.
Reports from the boats who left a couple weeks ago are as expected, big rain storms and electrical storms at the ITCZ. The lightening I could do without but I can hardly wait for some rain. With this wind even a dip in the ocean here is out of the question and we're going to fast for our salt water wash down pump too. Besides, it's hard to hold on for a real shower with the boat motion. Good thing we've both been here the same amount of time! It would be tough to be beamed onto our boat fresh
from civilization now.
Speaking of smelly, we have seen schools of flying fish all leap from the water together and bank and turn like swallows. So now we have a problem that we've had plenty of time to ponder. What do you call a group of flying fish? Are they a school or a flock? We've decided on a flool because the alliteration is so good - a flying fish flool.
Also, for those of you who knew me before.. here's proof this cruising life agrees with me. Someone recently said that they wanted to learn to be more like me; calm, relaxed and easy going about everything!
So, I'm off watch and it's time for some sleep. Thanks for the emails.