Today is day 4 of our passage to Majuro from Vanuatu. We've had nice sunshine today that makes the ocean turn that beautiful cobalt blue. It is a vivid blue that I have only seen at sea. The sea is still quite churned up by the weather systems to the south of us, so our ride is wet and bumpy.

We are approaching the area where the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere weather converge. What that means for us is that we will be crossing an area of unstable weather with associated squalls and rain. So, I think that is what we have in store for our weekend.

It is also getting warmer by the day as we approach the equator. This will be our fourth equatorial crossing, and for some reason, we are still excited about it.

We are steering with our "Wind Pilot", a wind vane steering device from Germany. It steers so well, and requires no electricity whatsoever. We just have to monitor the wind direction, because if the wind changes direction, so do we until we adjust the machine.

The nice weather allowed us to take our shower outside in the cockpit under the sun. This is always such a nice thing. A simple pleasure to be sure, but a very real and enjoyable one too.

It is now just past dinner time. Since we use one of our salon setties (like a sofa) as our warm weather sea bed, we usually eat outside in the cockpit or sit on the floor. Today, it was the floor. Yes, we know it sounds funny, but it's better than spilling our delicious dinner. By the way, Elisabeth treats us well on passage. Tonight's dinner was a German thing. We had fresh green beans, potato salad, Cornichons and Wurstchens, a little German sausage. Nice eh? The fresh veggie market in Port Vila is to be credited for the veg, and Au Bon Marche is to be thanked for the Cornichons and Wurstchens. And oh yes, for those of you who may worry that we will now be reading our menu on a daily basis, you can rest easy. We won't torture you like that.

Elisabeth is now tucked into her bed while I take the first watch, and that pretty much is our day. Just normal living at sea.

As always our position is shown of the right side of the page - just click on the map. Our day's progress (noon to Noon) is about 146 miles.

We will continue to keep you posted.

Rod and Elisabeth