Things aboard the mighty Blade Runner continue to go well. If you click on the google earth link on the blog (at least I think I set that up before we left) you will notice that we are just about half way there: WhooHooo! Just in case the google earth function isn't working go to pacificup.org and click on the tracker. If you haven't already been doing this it's a fun way to track our progress. We have a small device called a 'yellowbrick' mounted on the back of the boat and it pings a satellite with our position and speed about every 15 minutes or so. This data is the correlated with that from all the other boats into a pretty nifty graphic interface. Try it, pretty addictive. And you'll notice, we note with a great deal of pride, that little old Blade Runner in all of her 27 feet of ocean racing fury are right near the front of the pack! Okay, disclaimer: A LOT of very fast boats started days behind us and so our position in front is likely quite ephemeral, but we sure do look good for now!

As the title of this post suggests, Andy and I were starting to wonder about the intellectual honesty of the race's slogan as the 'fun race to Hawaii.' Two and a half days of cold, soaking wet blast reaching followed by slating around in light air for a couple days. "Jeez", we thought, "can you imagine what the other races might be like if this is the fun one?!?"

But alas all our fears have been laid to rest. Since yesterday afternoon we've had progressively building breeze, puffy white clouds, and warm sunshine. A person could really get used to this sort of thing! And thanks to our new found wind we are making rapid progress to the halfway point in our trip. Looking at the weather forecast it is likely that today is actually the halfway point in terms of time, as we anticipate right now an arrival in Kaneohe this coming weekend. The milage halfway point should tick through the GPS sometime tomorrow afternoon.

We are in a state of feverish preparation for our halfway party: lawn furniture is arriving, the champagne and caviar are cooling on ice, and final arrangements with the florist and valet have been made. Well, not quite, more like a bottle of rum and some Crystal light mix is sitting somewhat damply in a corner of the cabin. Most importantly our stalwart friends and supporters and our ever-loving families have prepared not one but TWO mystery 'halfway boxes' for us to enjoy. In case you haven't noticed from some overwrought prose are current interest in clicking off this halfway boxes is beginning to border on obsession.

Update from the wildlife desk: flying fish have become common as the little jellyfish have disappeared, clearly we have transitioned form one biosphere to another as we progress south and east.

That is all from Blade Runner for today, Aloha to all!