Tom has seemed a little odd since we left NZ two days ago and today he completely went over the edge.

Yesterday, I came up to relieve him from his watch and I couldn�'t find him! After the burst of adrenaline hit me, I found him tap dancing on the foredeck and out of the cockpit without a harness. Both of these are strict no no�'s without someone else in the cockpit. After I got him back into the cockpit, I proceeded to read him the Tanga safety lecture, item number one, he looks at me stone cold and says �"I was just dancing with the stars�". I�'ve seen him dance exactly 3 times in 21yrs together, and all 3 times copious amounts of libations were involved. After making sure he was sober, I put him to bed and decided that I would watch him a little closer to make sure he didn�'t pull anymore stupid stunts.

Then today, he literally went over the edge. We were motoring through an area of light air and I was below making some lunch when all of a sudden I hear the engine rpms drop to low. I yell up to Tom and he yells back �"deploy the swim ladder�", what in the world is going on? I poke my head out of the companionway just in time to see him go over the stern stark naked, with a bowie knife clenched in his teeth. At this point I have no idea what is happening other than the captain of the ship decided to go for a swim, which is odd because the water is still too cold to enjoy (about 65F). I get the swim ladder on deck and start trying to see where he went when I discover he has a fishing line out and is holding on to it while swimming away from the boat. Its then that I see about 30 feet from Tom is a large shark chasing a Tuna that Tom hooked, I�'m thinking this can�'t be happening.

I start yelling for him to get his such and such back on the boat now and he yells back �"that�'s my tuna, that son of a guppie is trying to steal it and I�'m getting it back!�" At this point, he and the shark both reach the tuna and all three disappear below the water. All I see next is blood in the water where they went below, and as my heart stops beating, Tom surfaces holding what remains of the Tuna over his head in triumph. Now I�'m thinking about pulling the swim ladder and leaving him, for putting me through this and because of his ridiculous behavior (not really, but kinda). He yells that he got the shark and its sinking as he swims back. I decide to keep the ladder attached.

About ten feet from the boat, I look past him and see a large dark shadow in the water about twice the size of Tom and start screaming for him to swim faster and yell shark shark. He doesn�'t move any faster and yells back �"no worries I got him�", I yell no you such and such, a big one is coming towards you and the bloody stump of a fish you have in your hand. I think at this point a rational thought came to his head because he tossed the fish remains at the shark, and in one huge splash, the tuna remains were consumed. Now I see terror in Tom�'s eyes as he attempts to set records in the 10 meter swim. I grab the fish spear we keep on deck during passages and throw it right at Tom�'s feet just as it seems the shark is about to strike. Bingo, the spear and shark both disappear. With Tom safely back aboard Tanga,I hug him, slap him, and he cleans himself up. What a day! We continue on our way to Fiji.

Obviously none of this happened, including Tom dancing on deck, but it beats sending the real post that just says the normal sailing stuff. So here goes the normal stuff: when we were just 3 hours outside of Whangarei, we had some dolphins come and swim along us; we consider this good luck. The winds were very light the first 2 days so we ran the engine for 46 hours straight. We traveled 275 miles in 48 hours. This morning, we turned the iron sail off and are now sailing along nicely. We have 813 miles until Fiji. All is well on Tanga.



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