It was a typical start to the day. On watch with Malo at 1200Z, nap until 0300 and then relieve Malo.

Shake out one reef in the main about 0400 and the second at 0500Z. Start to plan the day to hoist the

screecher sail set out the fishing line. Run the generator, make coffee and start the water maker.

Catch and release one very small Mahi and rest the line. Everyone else gets up around 0800Z and I make

pancakes for breakfast. Now it is time for a nap which only last about an hour.

We sail past one squall and then I get the boys to help set the screecher. It is a bit of a new

configuration as the Kayaks are outboard of the lifelines and the screecher sheets have to be lead past

the kayaks. We unfurl the sail with the new configuration and find it won't stay clear of the kayaks

so make an attempt to furl it in when the loose end get caught on the winch and the man (Mosese) on the

furler line doesn't realize it. Malo and I are at the furler drum at the bottom of the sail and try to

twist the drum to no luck when I realize it was really stuck back by Mosese at the aft of the boat.

When I get back there and release the hung line the furler works perfectly. Another lesson to

remember. In the mean time the very light screecher was doing just that screeching at being very loose

on the sheet until we rolled it up. We had to use the gib and main to blanket the screecher to relieve

the pressure so we could furl it and once it was furled in we continued on.

We then had to thread the screecher sheet through the kayak cradle and the kayak on the outside of the

life lines and back to the turning block after passing it through a snatch block tied to bottom of the

lower shroud. Mind you this is all jury rigging as the kayaks were mounted outside of the life lines

at the last moment before leaving Fiji. An Aussie friend (Jimmy the plumber) had them made and shipped

to me before we left. Again thanks Jimmy! Ok the sheet now looks clear and we now have to wait for a

very large rain squall to pass (about 15 miles wide) before re-deploying the screecher. Now that it

has passed the wind decides to drop to 7-8knots so not enough to keep any sail full. As we wait for

about another 30 minutes the wind gradually builds back up to 12-14 but still doesn't come from a good

angle, too much on the beam when it needs to be a little more aft, i.e. 120 degrees or more.

Ok so it is deployed and the wind finally settles to between 110 and 120 degrees and off we go doing 7+

knots with 10-14 knots of wind. This is a mighty expensive sail for as little as we have used it.

Remember this is really the second one, the first we lost after we left home heading down the coast of

California and this is the insurance replacement. Don't know that I would every buy another one and if

I did I would definately make sure it was at least 6" shorter than this one because it seams we can

hardly get enough tension on the luff rope to keep its shape. A good asymetrical with a luff furling

system might be better. We still have a symetrical spinnaker on deck that I bought from a Kiwi last

year but have not had the opportunity to set it. Maybe once we get North of the high and we are

heading East towards Astoria.

Lisa made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, baked half and froze the dough for the other half.

Now she is working on chicken fajitas for dinner. We just past the 800 mile mark.. So we are nearly

1/3 of the way home from HI. 1700 miles to go. All systems seem to be working well except the receive

on the radio. Will resplice the antenna lead tomorrow and see if that helps.

All for now.

John