present position 12deg 321.3' N, 178deg 44.2' E, COG 065, SOG 5.0 kts

estimated position in 24hrs 13deg 13.6'N 179deg 36.6' W (did you see that West!!)

baro 29.77, 12 hr range 29.68 - .77

wind ENE 20kts, 12 hr range 17-26

seas 3-4m

cloud cover mostly clear, half moon rising aft of us

summary better mileage today than previous two days; still strong winds and lumpy seas



we had about two watches worth -- 6 hrs -- of SOG running at approximately 5 kts (at less than 3 pgh), which is still way slow, but
way better than the barely 4kts that we've been doing for days. when the wind drops just a bit, from the low 20s to the high teens, for
a couple of hours, the seas get a bit less confused, a bit further apart, and not quire so steep; all of which allow us to slam less, and
therefore maintain momentum, getting the higher SOG. We're back in the 4's now, but not on the edge.

you know you've been out here way too long, when you find the following things wildly amusing:

I've been sleeping on the salon floor, with the mattress from the forward top bunk (as we did on DE during the last leg between northern
Japan and SE Alaska), but in the evening, when Wade is on watch, I use the setee, and leave the mattress up against the bookshelves on
the port side of the salon, so people can get back and forth easily, as they're still up moving around. I move over to the mattress on the
floor when Wade gets off watch and get a couple hours during David C's watch, before my own at 1200 UTC. This evening I was lying there
dozing, reading and kind of awoke with the feeling someone was staring at me, and there was Wade, apparently just got off watch, sitting
on the steps up to the pilothouse, doing his best imitation of Rusty, staring at me, waiting for me to ESP that I was in his spot. Just thinking
about it later, when drinking some water, I ended up snorting the water out of my nose.

Between body slams in the middle of the night, I have occassionally heard this vague "whistle", like a whistle buoy offshore, but always
been halfway asleep and not sure I was imagining it. It turns out, Wade discovered, cause he heard it too, but investigated, the vanity basin
in the forward head, we've been getting seawater backing up from the thru hull, and we've taken to pushing closed the drain inside the
bottom of the basin. Apparently the waves slapping against the thru hull have enough force to push air, and some seawater, past the
drain gasket, pressure-izing the air and creating a sound exactly like a whistle buoy, cause that's exactly how a whistle buoy works.

For those of you reading this, I'm sure you dont find these two incidents "wildly funny", but then you're not out here on this endless
ocean with 3 other smelly guys and not a lot of other entertainment beyond guessing the number of flying fish we'll find on the deck
each morning, after the nightly FF mass suicide attacks.

1426nm to Hawaii; still looking forward to the Krispy Kreme store at Dateline