First I want to wish my bride of 29 plus years an very happy birthday. I hope she enjoys her day and I look forward to seeing her in Hawaii soon. Ok so now the cats out of the bag on who is writing the daily updates.

Let see where did I leave off, if I remember it was around 3PM and we were reaching with the heavy 1 in 6 to 8 knots of wind headed 200 degrees with the wind out of 290. Guess what we are still reaching with the heavy 1 in 6 to 8 knots of breeze headed 243 degrees with the wind having backed to 340. We still have 1850 miles to go. To give you an idea of how far we have been in 68 hours since the start we have traveled 480 NM doing the math says we are averaging 7 knots, which reminds me about a joke, but later on the joke. So if we were sailing the Harvest moon race, we would have delivered the boat to Galveston raced back to Port A, then sailed back to Galveston for the heck of it. In case you are counting we still have 6 + more round trips to go.

Morning roll call has us 2nd in class and 9th in fleet. The big boats start later today and it looks like they will jump into the top fleet standing with the roll call on Monday morning. Weather has them headed straight to Hawaii. So we will sail hard for the next 1850 miles and try to win our class. We still have lots of sailing to go.

Now the details of the trip from 3PM July 4th to 9AM July 5th. We started with a steak dinner cooked on the grill hanging off the back of the boat. Grilling was handled by Billy, the salad and garlic mashed potatoes were prepared by Chef Suzie. It was a wonderful meal served in the fine blue plastic bowels the S/V Passion is noted for and that the Evil Admiral Foster will allow on board.

You may ask what happened to the Captain title. Well since the last Transpac the Captain was commissioned in the Texas Navy and is now an Admiral and is demanding that we upgrade his status honoring his ranking in the Texas Navy.

The only sail change was when we went to the .75 spinnaker just after dinner around 7PM. The wind had backed to 350 and held so we elected to hoist the chute and as in the past the wind changes its mind after 2 hours so we lowered the chute and went back to the heavy 1. One would guess with this big old ocean that the wind would be very consistent, guess again. During the night around 145AM we were sailing along doing 7 knots on a close reach the wind just evaporated we coasted into a hole that had us stopped we were doing 0.00 on the knot meter. Then in 15 long minutes the wind came back and poof we were off again same course same wind. The shifts are also as big with 30 degree headers and lifts hitting the boat with random timing. The strip charts are fun to look at when you get up from your nap.

Sailing at night in a smooth sea with the moon peaking out from the clouds is just a wonderful experience. While I was steering it came out and then appeared in the tell tale window. You know I am always amazed with what Mother Nature can spring on you to brighten you day. This trip has been very dry so far and also warm compared to the last trip across the Pacific. This morning Bill and Will spotted a large group of Dolphins chasing a school of fish off the lee side, quite a sight. For those of you concerned about the leak we have slowed it down and are focusing in on the area it can come from. Amazing on what can get you attention besides trimming sails and driving.

Well off to crack the whip on the boys and lady. We need to get Passion moving a little faster.

A big thanks to Gary who is a communication wizard and is able to post these notes to the blog from the middle of the ocean and supply us with all the data we need to decipher the wind.

Till tomorrow from the SV Passion located at 27.42N and 124.36W headed to Hawaii (a little faster than yesterday)