Position: 36 37.8375'N: 156 06.2840'W Distance covered in the last 24 hours: 123 miles Conditions: 8-10 knots of wind out of the N and sunny skies.

It has been a week since I left Hanalei Bay and I have now sailed 910 miles and have approximately 1700 miles to go to Seattle. The miles should get easier as the wind will mostly be on the beam or behind me. I am also expecting 3-4 days of 20+ knot winds that will help push me along.

It was a sad day out here today. I opened up the freezer to get my morning homemade chocolate macadamia nut cookie out and discovered it was the last one. I ceremoniously took the last cookie and a Diet Coke and went and set on the stern of the boat and contemplated whether I should turn around and go get more or keep going. My heart and stomach said turn around but logic prevailed and I am still headed for Seattle. All is not lost though because I have learned that you need spares for everything on board - even the cookies. It turns out that the Shell station just outside of Hanalei Bay has really good chocolate chip cookies as well. Not as good as yours Meryl but they work for spares. Just before leaving I got a ride up to the Shell station and went inside. They had a fresh baked stack of cookies at the counter and I grabbed 10 of them and went to pay. The 350 pound Hawaiian (I think he has been into the cookies) at the counter asked why I wanted so many and I explained that I was leaving the next day on my boat for Seattle and I needed the cookies for the trip. He response was "Bro you gonna sail back to Seattle . . . you crazy as sh** bro, you can have them cookies". So this afternoon I will dig them out from the bottom of the freezer and hopefully they will last until I get to Seattle.

Also this morning at 8:30 (36 33N, 156 39W) I tacked and I am now directly on course for Portland. Not quite where I want to go but the wind is supposed to keep backing more to the northwest and by this evening I should be on course for Seattle, for now at least I am headed east. It seems strange to have the boat heeled in the other direction. Everything that had become so firmly settled in place moved with one big loud groan as the boat came around and settled in on its new course. It will take some getting used to as things that I used to have to reach into a cabinet for now jump out at me as soon as I open the cabinet.

Last night just before sunset I was sitting in the cockpit when I saw a large amount of turbulence in the water about a half a mile away. As it got closer I could see that there was a pod of about 50 dolphins racing across the water. They were headed from north to south and moving very fast. It was an amazing site watching them cross in front of the setting sun as they leaped out of the water. A sunset to remember.

Scott