5/2 Wednesday 8pm
Who wanted light winds? Well they're here and more annoying than ever. There's nothing like a slatting sail to make you go insane. Jon says to me this evening “I'm losing my good attitude” after finding out that the autopilot is indeed busted. Monty was having a hard time steering with no wind so we flipped on the pilot but the motor won't run; it is probably because it blew through another set of brushes. We have one more set on the new pump. If it stays light Jon will install the new spare pump and see if that solves the problem. Now we wish we hadn't of ebayed the old autopilot since looking back, that thing worked great compared to this setup we've got now. We thought we were spending all this money to make things better, not worse. Oh well.

So we adjusted the sails to go wing & wing today since the wind is light and more easterly. So the jib is poled out on the windward side and the main is set to starboard. When the wind blows, it works great. But it comes in puffs which doesn't work well. We're going a lot slower as a result. The other boats on the radio net are complaining of the same conditions. Our friend on Impiana just went ahead and pulled his sails in so he wouldn't have to hear the slatting and another boat made 4 miles yesterday! We put out the fishing line and  caught a fish at the same time we got an unwanted puff of wind which sent us speeding off to 6 kts and the line broke; we lost our lucky lure. We think it was a tuna too since it wasn't jumping out of the water. Oh well again.

I saw a few birds today, nothing more. The death toll on deck is rising, although not so many casualties as earlier in the trip. We make rounds on deck each morning to check for chafe or other issues- today Jon needed to tighten a few screws on the boom vang since it gets a real workout going downwind, but it is also to clean off the carcasses.

I made mom's italian sausage & beans over cheese grits w/ cauliflower for dinner. I was rummaging around in the icebox looking for cheese and found a bar of IGA cheddar I'd gotten in Montauk, NY. Well you'd think it was a bar of Cabot's Special Reserve after the stuff we've been having to eat lately. I sliced off a piece just for us to eat plain and savor because what you can get in S America is truly awful! It just tastes like orange grease. I never thought I'd see the day when IGA cheese was a luxury item.

That's the excitement for today. Aren't you glad you're doing something else?

5/3 Thursday 8pm
We continue bobbing around in the Pacific. The past 30 hrs or so have been very unproductive in the mileage department since we have very light winds. It hasn't changed for vessels ahead of us either. But at least for the moment we are doing 5kts and have a gentle breeze.  That's better than the 3-4 we were doing earlier. Late last night, dolphins came by and swam alongside the boat. You can't see them but you can see the green phosphorescent path they leave in the water as they swim, and you can hear them coming up for breaths. It's a nice experience.

We spent the entire morning installing the newer, new autopilot pump. So now not only does it have new brushes, but a whole new pump also. It is steering us now so that if the winds dies again tonight, we'll motor to keep the sails from slatting.  Tomorrow we should reach the 2000 mile mark, leaving 1/3 of the way left to go. I suspect it'll take us longer time wise since it looks like it'll be slow going. Now all the stuff we were going to do today like make bread, check out why the switch to the electric head is sticking and put fresh line on one of our fishing poles, will have to wait till tomorrow.

So we're planning to “land” at Fatu Hiva, at an anchorage purported to be the most beautiful in the Marquesas although I can't remember the name of it at the moment. I do remember that it was originally named Penis Bay because of the rock formations visible from the anchorage, however this name was changed to the Bay of Virgins by who else- the Catholic missionaries! The unfortunate thing is it is not a port of entry so it's technically illegal to stop there first, but many boats do and many that we're traveling with are planning to as we are. You'd think that with all the boats coming over to visit the Marquesas having traveled such a long way could be given some slack but no, the rules are what they are. It is just a matter of getting by them without someone trying to enforce them on you! If you went first to the next island and checked in, then came back, it would mean beating into the tradewinds for 44 miles or so- not likely to happen! We are just really excited to get there and start walking around in that beautiful scenery. It'll be such a milestone for us.

So I made shake n bake chicken tonight with roasted rosemary potatoes & a greek salad. Given the amount of lettuce I have left, there will only be one more small salad and then NADA until I'm not sure when! I guess there will be many “cantastic” vegetable side dishes in the future for us! But.... I hear the French baguettes and eclairs are good. And supposedly they have good frozen vegetables too. Some foods are subsidized so they cost less- I think brie is one of them. Baguettes are too. Most food in French Polynesia is insanely expensive so we don't plan to buy those kinds of things  there, just use our provisions. Well I can't wait to see it all for myself!