After nine days of brisk winds ranging from 15-27 knots and big waves, we've hit intermission. That's what I call it anyway. The sleigh ride of a couple days ago with the boat careening down big waves, lots of sea water slapping against the hull (and occasionally coming into the cockpit) is over! Technically this calm we're experiencing is called the doldrums, experienced as one passes thru the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which typically floats around just North of the equator. So here we are at 05^02.1N, 130^47.6W, sailing along with barely enough wind to fill the sails. The sun is finally out, so no more rain squalls to dodge for the moment. When the wind dies completely, the ocean swell causes the sails to "slat" as the boat rolls from side to side. That gets very annoying after a while, so we motor slowly to conserve fuel. In case you were wondering, it's still over a thousand miles to the Marquesas Islands, so we can't just motor there. So, we're doing laundry, catching up on sleep and eating well. The captain even grave the crew beer rations with lunch and dinner today - Huzzah!! So we download the computer generated weather forecasts at every opportunity hoping the winds will fill in before the current prediction of Tuesday morning. In the meantime, we are trying to get as far West as we can in anticipation of the new wind. Funny thing is that four days ago, we were West trying to get South. And that how sailing goes! Cheers!