Day 13: 121nms, Day 14: 46nms, Day 15: 93nms. Miles to go: 1454 Not to much to report for day 13. We woke to find 2 dried up flying fish near the bow of the boat. It is now a morning ritual to seek out any more dead ones and to keep a running count of the flying fish committing suicide on Tanga. Flying fish total is 4. Also on day 13, we had good winds and continued to sail with large steep seas. We made great mileage!

Day 14 was not such a great day for the crew of Tanga. We had very light winds all day. So in the process of dropping the mainsail, it tore on the top of the sail, leaving the halyard at the top of the mast. As the boat was rocking back and forth because of the swells, the halyard then tangled itself around the rigging. We can't get the halyard down, so now, the mainsail is completely useless. Very frustrating situation. But, atleast our sailboat is a ketch and we can use our mizzen with the jib to sail. We just don't get as good of speed. We are expecting this setback to add an additional week to our trip because we won't be sailing at the speeds we were before. In order to solve the situation, we need to wait for flat seas, hopefully in the doldrums. Then, Tom will hoist me up the main mast and I will untangle the halyard and bring it down with me. Also, a sewing project is in order. After that, we will be able to use the mainsail again. That evening and night, still no winds, so we hove to and went on with our night watches, sitting fairly still in the ocean. We also found 4 more flying fish on the boat. Total now up to 8.

Day 15 was a moral booster day for us. We sailed along nicely with the jib and mizzen making pretty good mileage. At 1:30am, the winds died and we hove to again, and bobbed in the ocean. No flying fish found. Count still at 8.

As for watches, many of you may be interested in how we do our night watches. Here's the break down. In the morning and early afternoon, we are pretty laid back as in how long we each take a watch. It really just depends on who needs to get what done, etc. Promptly at 3:00pm, I do a 2 hour watch till 5:00pm. Tom then takes over and does a 5hr watch from 5 - 10pm. This gives me a chance to go down to the galley and make 2 pots of coffee (gets us through the night and morning) and make dinner. I then lay down for a 3.5-4 hour nap. Tom wakes me at 10pm and I do a 4hr watch from 10pm-2am. Tom does 2am-5am, and I do the 5am-8am. This schedule seems to work the best for us and we both like getting a 4 hr nap, makes a big difference. As for the times we are "hove to" at night, we make up a bed in the cockpit, so the person on watch can set a timer for every 30 minutes, check the horizon for traffic, then go back to sleep for another 30 minutes, until their watch is over.

We're limping along and doing good.

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