14 May 10am local

Weather permitting, Shearwater will depart Palau on Thursday, heading for Ponhepe, Federated States of Micronesia, some 1800 miles west of Palau. In a direct line, that could be 12 days underway, give or take. The give or take depends on wind and/or current. We are traveling against the prevailing Easterlies or Trade Winds, but by dropping south towards the equator a bit, on our track towards Ponhepe, we should see reduced speeds in the winds against us (and not for nothing, a further reduction in the possibility of being in range of a developing typhoon). Also we're hoping to find the Equatorial Counter Current, setting eastwards -- hey, that's the way we're going! to help out.

But today, David C and Wade are taking their open water dives for certification. I am working on issues like fuel and garbage. And Roger has several projects, not the least of which is that the mounting base plate for the helm chair, has broken away from the upright and needs to be re-welded. Without that repair, we'll really be "standing watch".

Yesterday, Roger and I teamed up for a couple of dives at the local attraction -- "Blue Holes" and "Blue Corner". Very nice examples of hard and soft corals, some almost-Giant Clam, lots of colorful reef fish and an occasional white tip shark just to keep it interesting. The dive operation at Sam's is smooth and professional; I would recommend it.

On the way out to the dive sites, I noticed the lower edge of some cloud showed a delicate light green tinge. At first, I thought it might just be an artifact of my polarized lenses, but I could still see it (less) without them. I finally worked out the those areas where shallow lagoons had green water (rather than the deep blue of deeper water) that green was reflecting off the clouds, giving them the green tinge... quite lovely. It's also very clear that one could spend quite a long time here exploring the reefs, beaches land caves -- but we have miles to go before we halt this voyage and my favorite diving / kayaking /life partner is back in Bodega Bay.