Remember that ole 60's ditty? It was Sonny and Cher, I think, who popularized it for me. Anyway, the beat goes on for us. We continue to beat into the wind, as expected. We have been out of Honolulu 6 days now, beating into a northeasterly. (Actually, because our boat doesn't "beat" into the wind that efficiently, we have cracked the sheets off a bit and have been close, close reaching northwards.)

The modern, conventional strategy for the Hawaii-to-Seattle run is to head north till you run out of the trades, then cut across the top of the high in a NWerly direction until you reach the easterlies, and then ride the easterly trades into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Well, it would seem that we ran out of the NErly trades and into the high last night. At present we are motoring northwards under sunny, blue skies with the jib furled hoping to find those easterly trades sometime this weekend.

At that point it should be all downhill....theoretically. I suspect there may be a beam sea for the first day or three and that could be a bit uncomfortable if it materializes. Anything can change, and change quickly out here, but for the present it seems we have reached the second stage of our journey -- negotiating the high. Our spirits our lifted as we recognize and hope this transcendence to the second stage. It means we may not have to beat into the wind anymore, AND it (hopefully) means no more of those pesky squalls.

Puget Sound is still 1,600 nm away. But if we are lucky, I am hoping to go through Deception Pass sometime between 0800-1000 in the morning. The date? Dunno right now, but I will as we get closer. Right now I am picking Thurs., July 14. Jim has picked the 15th. But if we can hit the Pass on the morning flood like I hope, we can make Oak Harbor by the afternoon. And if anyone is in the area, you can come out onto the bridge and wave at us as we pass underneath!!!! I'll keep you posted as we get closer.

Both of us are anxious to get home to our families. I am anxious to get started with the next chapter of our lives. But all in good time. For now we have to attend to the boat and ourselves -- keeping our bodies rested and the boat together. On that latter count, I had hoped to escape having to climb the rig on this passage. It is a relatively short passage and for just once I wanted to cross an ocean without climbing. Not to be. Our LED masthead tricolor light went out last night so there I was this afternoon replacing it. Luckily, the sea is calm today so the rocking wasn't so bad.

That is all to report for now. We are looking forward to seeing everyone soon! God bless us!