Last night we watched Master and Commander in our cabin, just to get into the proper spirit for our present location.

It's been 10 days since we left the lights of Kobe astern. We still have another 10 days to go to reach Panama. Three full weeks at sea (three times as long as crossing the Atlantic earlier in the voyage).

So far, we've sighted no land and only passed three ships heading in the other direction. Other than that, we are alone on the ocean.

You know the Pacific Ocean is big when you look at it on a map, and when you fly over it, but you have no idea of it's immensity until you cross it by sea.

It's endless.....we simply cannot fathom the perseverance of the first explorers who ventured across in their wooden sailing ships. Captain Cook must have been quite extraordinary. No radar, no GPS, no refrigeration, no sat phones, no daily faxes of weather reports and sea conditions, no Panama Canal to zip through. Just the wind, a sound ship, his sextant, and a star to sail her by...

and two to three years of your life, around the Horn, to what truly was "the Far Side of the World".

Next blog post will be from the Panama Canal.