present position: 15deg 45.2' N 173deg 8.7' W, COG 072 True, SOG 5.7kts

estimated 24hr position: 16deg 17.5' N 171deg 16.2'W

baro 29.86, 24hr 29.80-.90

wind ENE 15kts, 24hr 12-22

seas 3m minimal chop

cloud 20% cloud, mostly on the horizon

summary : last 9 hrs wind dropped to low-mid teens, allowing seas to moderate, allowing increased SOG, without increase in fuel usage.

After more than a solid week of less than ideal conditions, imagine our surprise and delight when we awoke to 10-12 kts of wind, a looooong period swell and virtually no wind chop. Dave immediately celebrated by cooking up a batch of his renowned oatmeal with craisins as I took the helm of Shearwater, now transformed into a big blue Buick Electra gliding easily over lazy swells. Oh Baby! Shirt off, arm hanging out the window, sunglasses on, and for the first time on this leg with no salt water spray dousing everything, hatches popped open to air out living spaces down below which I will only impose on your imaginations to describe as "needing it!" It may not last forever but it is really sweet and gives hope and a shape to life after headwinds.

On the fishing front, we seem to have the current problem of only being able to raise marlin to our baits. Redoubling efforts for Mahi or tuna as this seems like pretty good water with respect to bait, if you like flying fish. Will give them assorted selections when I get off watch. Have not yet resorted to rigging a flying fish for trolling but will need to resort to the medical kit for tools if we get to that point. To my I.R. friends, could use Seldinger technique or perhaps a tunneling tool. ("more air in the stomach")

Final chapter on safety equipment. What to do if the unthinkable need arises to abandon ship. While extremely unlikely with this stout little Duck, the ostrich course of action, (heads in the sand) is not advisable.

First we have a EPIRB for the boat and personal EPIRBs for each crew member. (Emergency Position Indicator Locator Beacon. ) These are units which are triggered by immersion or manually. They send a positional distress message via satellite and are registered with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration via the RCC (Rescue Coordination Center) in Alemeda, CA for the entire Pacific. Once they receive a distress call, they have a phone tree to determine whether it is a true distress call or false alarm (not that I expect too many Prince Albert in the Can calls but as you might imagine most calls are from malfunctioning units or operator errors) To circumvent this, as he has experience with the system, Dave has provided a direct number to the RCC labeled on both our SAT phones to let them know directly to bypass the verification process in the event of a real emergency. You have seen photos of our survival suits. They are labeled and hanging from the pilot house roof with accessorized strobes, light sticks, knives and whistles. They are rated to keep an average person alive for 14 hours in 40 degree water, 5 days in 50 degree water and in our 80+ degree water here, much longer, although one can succumb to exposure, even in tropical water.

Finally we have an inflatable liferaft and waterproof ditch bags including handheld vhf radio and gps as well as case for the sat phones, food, medical supplies, fishing lures, reflector mirrors, flares, etc. Multiple 5 gallon water jugs which float in salt water are tied together and in stored in he same location in the aft cockpit.

Enough about that! Only 916 nm to Hawaii and a drink with an umbrella and a slice of pineapple.