Sunday, June 12 We have found the wind at last. Yesterday, we made 135 miles. We have about 750 miles to go, so you can see that at about 125 miles per day, we can probably say that we are less than a week away from our destination. I say probably, because things can always change, and 750 miles is still a very long way. But still, here we are making very good progress. It seemed to take forever to reach Lat. 38, and now we are at Lat. 42. This is the same latitude as the California/Oregon border, so we are getting north. It is not comfortable. The seas knock the boat around. The wind is 17 to 23, so we move well, but get a rough ride. The sky is completely grey and foggy, and is beginning to rain. But we have movement, so we are very happy. Oh yeah, it is also getting cold. The temp outside in the afternoon was 13C, (55F) and inside was 17C (62F). It is forecast to get to 44F by Friday. Brrr. We have good clothes, but we are also aclimated to the tropics, so we are working on our "durability". Ultimately, I want my message to be that we are thrilled to be moving, and our spirits are really high. We're going to Alaska!

We got a topic for discussion from Gary and Alice, so let's have a go. They want to know about our consumable status, traffic, and marine life.

As far as food, goes, we have heaps of tinned food - cans, enough for a long time. We have lots of garlic and onions. They store well, last a long time, also lots of dry goods, beans, rice, couscous, so no worries in the food dept. Water. We have a water maker, so we make drinking water from sea water. Plenty of water. Fuel. We have very little fuel by design. These early Swans we designed to race the worlds waters, but not really to be a cruising boat. So, we sail very well, but we do not carry much fuel. Our boat's tank has a 28 gallon capacity. We have a number of jerry cans on deck to extend the minimal range. Right now, we have fuel for about 70 hours motoring at 3.5 to 4 knots in fairly flat water. If the water is seriously adgetated, the hourly burn will be more to maintain that speed, and the resulting range will be, of course, much less. We also have to save a fair amount of that fuel for charging of the batteries. With no sun, our wind generator helps, but cannot keep up with the electrical demands of the boat.

Traffic has consisted of about 1 to 2 AIS contacts a day. We have been close enough for an actual sighting only once this trip. For those who may not know, AIS is a system consisting a transponder broadcasting the position, course and speed, as well as other data about a vessel. It has a second part which recieves and displays this data. We are AIS equipped as well, and broadcast our info to other vessels, and recieve the info from them. Wonderful system. It allows us to avoid conflicts and often we have nice conversations with the bridge crew.

Marine life. We don't really see that much. We did see the three whales we reported last week, but that was very rare. We see many birds, and it doesn't seem to matter how far from land we are. On this trip, we have had these very large seagull, looking birds with us. When the sea was flat, we saw many "blue bottle" jelly fish sailing by. These are the very toxic and quite small little beasts that can give you a serious injury if you have enough contact with their tentacles. On other voyages we have seen big pods of dolphins. Once we must have had a few hundred swimming along with us, crossing from left to right over the course of a few hours. It was beautiful.

All right, how are we doing? If the consumables topic was not what you were after, you can always ask to clarify. But we carry heaps of stuff. WD-40, Engine oil, filtres, lubricants, epoxies, guitar strings, you know, all of the important things. Enough for now, and thanks for asking. Be Excellent to Each Other! Rod and Elisabeth,

"Your Rock and Roll Argonauts" "Les Pirates d'Honneur"