'Long is the way and hard that leads us out of darkness and into the light.'

Yesterday we beat to weather going due south to get out of the system from 5-7S/102-110W that was slowly moving west. It was no smooth ride, my bunk and books got soaked, cooking was athletic but it was all worth it. We are now in clear blue skies with 15-20 knots coming out of the SE and the swells shoving us ever onward. We hit about 7kn at the trough of the waves and 10kn surfing down the other side. Yee Haw! We did the math and if we keep this up we'll be there in a little over a week. But, as you know, conditions vary and we just get excited sometimes.

Last night was clear and the stars and phosphorescence made a welcome appearance. A refreshing change from the previous soggy black night watches.

Cleaned up all this afternoon and am avoiding my work out by writing this log. It seems there is always something else to be done. I am a pro at coming up with excuses and rationalizations. But alas, this is day six and I need to buck up!

I keep hallucinating jumping fish and Dad has seen several mirage masts on the horizon. He asked me what I thought that may mean. I said maybe I was hungry and he was lonely. Too deep?

I just realized that my opening quote is a bit intense. Oh well, I'm leaving it put. I've gotta get you in the mood somehow.

I have a pineapple, papaya, avocado, passion fruit and cauliflower that are all on the brink of ripeness. Time to get creative. Oh, we did catch a fish. It's not a tuna. We don't think it's a bonito. Correction per the captain: it's not a gulf bonito-maybe it's a pacific bonito. Anyway, he says it had to be at least 40 lbs. I ordered a mahi, but maybe it's not due to come in until this afternoon.

Cheers to picky palates Cass