We are currently enroute to Bahia Santa Maria under sail in 14kts of wind, making 5.5 to 6.0kts, and hand steering. The autopilot decided to take a vacation, so in addition to a slight oil leak and no working Radar, we now have no autopilot. A lesser crew would be down and out at the thought of hand steering the remaining 400 nm to Cabo San Lucas, but not the crew of THIRD DAY. They are just happy to have wind and the absence of engine noise. We are currently 201nm away from Bahia Santa Maria, so at our current speed of 6kts the trip will take 33.5 hours; however, I'm not a dreamer and know that we most likely won't keep up a 6.0kts average, so 40 hours sounds more realistic. The winds are predicted to be 15-20kts and even as high as 28kts, so you never know, we may make better time than I expect.

We landed two Bonita right out of Turtle Bay this morning but released them out of not wanting to deal with the clean up. If they would have been Dorado, they would be in the ice box, besides, so far anytime we really want to catch a fish, we have been able to land one, so we don't feel the pressure to always be dragging our fishing gear. I know it sounds crazy, but you can only eat so much fresh fish!

The kids are up in the V-berth watching a DVD and as soon as this blog update goes out over the Ham Radio, I'm off for a nice cool shower because that air/boat temp is a balmy 85Deg.

I tried calling my folks along with Eric and Mark last night with a phone patch set up by Vern over the Ham radio last night, but with the Halloween activities last night, no one was home. I will try again this evening around 615pm. The way it works is that Vern (W6NXV) patches through our Ham Radio communication to a phone line and we are able to talk just as if we were on a walkie-talkie (one person talks while the other listens). It's pretty cool and will save the $1.35/min Satellite phone charges.

Lori wanted me say Happy Birthday to her friend Peggy, but made it clear that I couldn't post her age.ha ha ha.

That's all for now because I can feel that cool shower calling my name and with the rough seas we currently have I figure if I lather myself up real good, I'll bounce around the shower stall walls and give them a good cleaning as well. That my friends is called Boat Multi-tasking!

(Editors note: my apologies for placing the image of me covered in soap suds bouncing around the shower stall, but I have lost 18 pounds since we left Port San Luis on September 28th, so it's not as bad am image as it once was!)