Today was a really unremarkable and uneventful day at sea. The sun shone bright all day, and the breeze and seas slackened a little, so we have been making a gentle five knots or so on the brilliant blue Pacific. Our arrival in Hiva Oa now seems mathematically determinate; mathematical models calculate the wind will blow easterly at between 14 and 16 knots through the end of the week, that will drive our boat dead downwind at about five knots, sometimes four, sometimes six, and at five knots we will make the 384 miles remaining to Hiva Oa at around daybreak on Friday.

It would do little good to go a little faster. Even at six knots, we would arrive at nightfall Thursday. We do not want to enter the harbor and attempt to anchor in the dark, so we would have to slow down or stop the boat and wait for day break anyway.

So even though today's wind was ideal for our drifter, we didn't make an effort to change sails, since the extra knot during the day would just mean arriving during darkness Thursday night. That, and the desire to leave well enough alone with the chafed halyards and the jury rigged spinnaker pole slide.

We had a text exchange with Sea Pearl and talked about converging our courses for some mid ocean photos. They are on a line about forty miles north of us. But they flew their parasail later in the day and reported going seven knots with it, so they will probably pass us forty miles to our north, way beyond the horizon.

And this afternoon I saw Hitch looking curiously at the sky and stretching his wings. When I came back on deck, he was gone, and he did not return at sunset. Perhaps he found an eastbound ship taking him back towards the Galapagos where the Nazca Boobies love, more likely he is swimming quietly somewhere on the ocean. Cleaning up after him was getting to be a source of tension on board, anyway.

The heavens light our path tonight. The crescent moon lit the way ahead as it slowly set early on, then Saturn rose bright in our wake. There are more than a few shooting stars tonight, some quite bright. We have settled into a gentle rocking motion on the slacking seas, but every twentieth wave or so the boat rolls briskly enough to toss stuff around on shelves and counters