Words and photos don't due justice to the sunset we had on Thursday. Since then we have been a busy crew dealing with boat challenges and wind/seas. The womper (our monster jib) has gone to the showers and was replaced by the heavy weather jib, wing on wing. Winds have gone to the North and filled in at 15-20 knots. Surprise is dancing on the swell and running 7-9 knots. Crew is learning to accommodate the new motion and rolling generated by residual swell from the NW; all of this makes the daily routine more difficult, but not impossible.

Captain McGyver has met each new mechanical challenge with stalwart perseverance and imagination, even while turning green from investigating problems upside down anc below deck. . His able assistant McGoo (who, with round specs, balding pate and 2 week beard could just as easily be mistaken for Papa Hemingway) stands by steadfastly ready to lend a hand, a back, or a witty observation as required. Junior crew is (still) steadily working toward accomplishing an entire 2 hour night shift solo and without incident, and managed to get that much dreaded first jibe handily out of the way without too much collateral damage last night, so onward and upward. .

Some of you looking at our breadcrumbs across the ocean might have wondered if we were sailing to Hawaii. For some time we were in fact on a course for Hilo. The purpose was to get us west into the strong NE trades, generated by the high pressure areas off the coast of California. Our professional advice would still have us sailing west, but we made our own decision yesterday and have turned more SSE. This course puts the wind and swell on our aft quarter, rather than the beam. We are just under 2000 miles from Hiva Oa, as the petrel flies. Speaking of birds we have been visited by masked boobies, one of the more elegant of its species. We have also seen plenty of brown boobies, and no, that doesn't mean female crew members have gone topless; it's just another species variant, a bit more common than the masked variety. This morning at breakfast we were visited by a small school of what we believe to be spotted pan tropical porpoise, who seemed to be having as much fun sporting among the small white caps as Surprise herself.

The Comments piece of this blog (see lower right at bottom) is a great way to provide feedback to us, unfortunately we will not see them until we again have internet access. For current notes to the boat use the following address: wcx9476 att sailmail dott com We haven't written it the proper way to avoid getting harvested for spam, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

It was with great anticipation that the crew gathered on deck for the first S/V Surprise Tin Whistle Tutorial. Admiral Chamberlin took center stage and, following the briefest of introduction to this beloved instrument, attached Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with an authority that suggested a virtuoso in the making. Her jump from the opening D up to A was bold with a touch audaciousness that brought a gasp of appreciation from the crew. Her descent of the scale back to D was finely nuanced, a much appreciated contrast to the jump of a fifth. Able-Bodied AJ suggested that she try the ever popular Do Re Me next. No challenge is too great for our admiral as evidenced by her peripatetic walk up the scale. However, she proved mortal as she stumbled on the rising scales that, when properly executed, never fail to send a chill of delight to the listener. All in all, there was general agreement that we had before us a tin whistler of great promise.