This is our first full day at sea again. Yesterday afternoon we had a rocky departure from Hilo. We first had to head North into the 8-10 ft waves and then we had to turn East and take them on the beam. The sky was overcast with isolated showers. We asked ourselves: What are we doing? Should we just sail to Maui instead? After 25 miles of motorsailing through that rubbish, we finally cleared Cape Kumuhai and began sailing Southwesterly along the final stretch of Hawaii coastline. Christine has the Midnight - 3 AM watch, and so had the fortune to see the orange glow from the lava flow of Kilauea. By daybreak the seas were 6-7 ft, wind 15-19 knots, and our boatspeed was a respectable 5.5-6.0 kts with balanced sails. Sunny skies, now we're thinking: Ok, we can do this for another 20 days or so. (Knock on wood, cross your fingers, and any other helpful, neurotic action you can think of.)

Finn has been busy reading up on Sharks, Dinosaurs and Greek Myths. He can't get enough of any of them. Sometimes he reads to himself, usually first thing after he wakes up, and sometimes sister Sophie does him a big favor and reads from our Greek Mythology book. Each child has a notebook to write in and Finn is busy drawing pretend cities and documenting some of his research.

Freya is happy as a clam when she can "write" in her journal. She fills page after page with waving lines, alternating in the colors of the rainbow. She is very proud of her work. She also spent some time working on her sewing globe, a carryover from her preschool. One of the teacher's thoughtfully packed up some beads and string and sent her unfinished globe on the trip. The object is to sew colored beads around the outlines of the seven continents, then we stuff the globe and she sew it up like a pillow. She can thread the needle and the beads and in and out she goes. She just needs help with the knots. Whenever Freya gets a little out of sorts we put on the CD that another teacher from her preschool made for her of the songs they sang together at school. My favorite song is "This little light of mine" because in Margot's version, the light shines down on everyone in our family including our Jenny P. Thank You! This is a great comfort even to the big folks.

Sophie spent an entire day hand-sewing Freya an island style dress. Freya is thrilled to wear it and it does look great on her. (Picture updates once we are in Samoa, we can only send text to our blog over Ham Radio while at sea) Sophie also spends time writing stories in her journal and drawing elaborate picture of cities she dreams up. She is also busy thinking of businesses she can start, usually involving computers and many times relying on technology not yet developed, such as "atom sliders" so people could walk through walls, etc. She finally got her ears pierced and loves to check on her earrings in the mirror. The nice lady at the jewelry store was a bit timid about the ear gun so she offered it to Eric and he very competently finished the job.

We had a bit of a snafu with the Palmyra chart we ordered, so it didn't arrive after all. A disappointment to be sure, but we are learning to work through those things as we "get what we get and we don't throw a fit." So straight on to Samoa where we may be able to meet up with our Mahina Expeditions captain and wife as they will be there with their latest crews through end of July.

A note to my reader friends: I just finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog (interesting, don't buy it I'll loan it to you) and now am thoroughly enjoying The History of Love.