Whales spotted off the starboard bow! We didn’t see any breaches, but
the plumes of their blowholes were very obvious, about 200 yards from
the boat. The sky is blue, the wind is calm but steady, and the sunset
last night gorgeous. We had to adjust course slightly due to the wind,
so we were heading straight towards the setting sun, which lit up the
sky with brilliant oranges and pinks, and we even saw the green flash
right when it passed beyond the horizon! If the rest of the trip remains
this calm and lovely, I think it’ll fly by.

Unfortunately, for the first several days of this trip, it wasn’t so
calm and lovely for me. I’ve had some chunks of time where I was feeling
fit as a fiddle, but some where I was pretty crummy. I think the
scopolamine patches (for seasickness) were giving me some nasty side
effects, including tingling/numbness in my extremities and cramping in
my hands. I’ve spent a decent amount of time this trip lying down in my
bunk. But I took my patch off this morning, and have been feeling much
better, including not really feeling nauseous yet (fingers crossed it
stays that way!). For the first several days of this voyage, I was
dreading the impending length of the passage. The three days that had
passed seemed like eternity in the face of an additional week yet to
come. But today, I feel good, and I hope to be able to return to the
regular watch schedule, keeping myself occupied and enjoying the voyage
more. If the weather remains as predicted by the charts Captain Eric has
been using, it should be smooth sailing the rest of the way with a
possible day of motoring due to low wind. We’ll arrive in New Zealand at
about 8pm next Saturday, according to the current plan, which may
require a bit of puttering around that night to wait and land once the
sun comes up on Sunday.

My best friend Alex is getting married tomorrow morning at 11:00am our
time, 4pm his time in Baltimore. I’m a bit bummed that I won’t be able
to be there to celebrate with him, but I’m glad at least that we have
the Garmin system that will allow me to send him a message of love and
well-wishing beforehand. And I suppose if I had to have an excuse to
have to miss the wedding, being on a trans-Pacific voyage is a pretty
worthy one.

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