The past days have been quite peaceful, the winds have still been light and we are pogressing with snail speed, doing only a little bit more than 100Nm per day. The weather conditions have become much more pleasant though, we now have clear sunny skies and it is much warmer, at least in the sun. The water temperature is also on the rise with about 26 degrees, soon it is actually swimmable. Sun is like medicine for me, it warms me up and enables my bones and muscles to move, I feel like one of the marine iguanas from Galapagos who lie and soak up the sunshine after a long dive in the chilly waters have made them stiff. It is not only me, the over all mood on the boat is definately higher and everyone smiles easier since the skies cleared.

Yesterday afternoon while we were having another excellent meal, tuna bake but unfortunately not from a freshly caught fish, we spotted two enormous whales swimming quite close to us, unfortunately we were not able the recognise their exact species but they were huge, at least the size of our boat if not larger. That was a special treat and the boys were exhilarated, they just love whale watching. When the sun set that same evening the stars came out, breathtaking, so many lights in the sky, one brighter than the other. You could see the whole milky way and so many constellation that I barely recognised. We all had our chance to wish upon a star since there were numerous shooting stars. We also celebrated the completion of our first 500Nm towards the end way point, that is the Marquesas, with a few glasses of wine.

Today we have been doing loads of school work and the Captain has been concentrating on catching fish, to no prevail though, the fish are not biting our lures for some reason, maybe Neptune does not like the rum we are offering him. we will have to try a stronger variant. We have plenty of time still so I am sure our fishing luck will change.

You will hear from us again in some days, regards from the South Pacific!!!

MF