Day 6 -- Finally Some Sun

We saw sun! Since leaving Mexico, it has been surprisingly cloudy everyday. I never thought it would be this cloudy in the Pacific at these latitudes. Because we've had such cloud cover its been much cooler than expected but now with the sun out it warmed up nicely. Today we also saw more water...in front, behind and to our sides. Its pretty cool how big this ocean is! No fish, but that is probably a good thing since (a) traveling 8 - 10 knots under sail and trying to slow the boat down to bring a fish in would be awfully challenging and (b) we have lots of chicken to eat. In fact instead of sushi rolls (if we had fish), tonight, along with excellent challah, we had chicken satay with veggies in rice rolls. (I am beginning to talk like Barb regarding our meals)!

Today we had some of the best sailing ever. These must be the trade winds! We are sailing downwind with our blue & white spinnaker up in front of the boat (no main sail) doing 8 - 10 knots. We actually saw 14 knots at one point! The swell is about 8 - 10 feet but it is long period and we are going with it so it is actually a very comfortable ride. Some of the best sailing in a very long (if ever) time.

For me, today's activity included stitching some leather onto the rigging at our seagull striker (the forward triangle that supports and hold the bows of both hulls together) as it has been causing some chafe on our jib. I never knew I'd become good with a needle and thread, but it came out looking pretty good, if I may say so. Still need to put a small patch on our sail.

We are now gradually getting into our routine -- its amazing that it takes 6 days to get there. The kids are even watching a movie now! Barb is sleeping as she is on the 12:30 am watch (she likes those overnight watches) and I am blogging and keeping watch.

Our stats for Day Six:
Distance: 159 miles -- we took it slow last night; Total trip: 970 miles
Average Speed: 6.6 knots; Average overall speed: 6.74 knots
Sea Conditions: Long period 8- 10 foot swells; sun finally came out; N winds about 15-20 knots; almost a full moon
Incident Report: None that I can think of
Fish caught: zero (except for two little ones that flew onto the boat)
Produce Inventory: Barb will have to provide this
Meals/Snacks: Plain old cereal with milk or toast with almond butter for breakfast. Yogurt avocado soup with salad for lunch and awesome challah and chicken satay with veggies in rice rolls for dinner.

Michael -- somewhere (see below and track us on the track link on our blog) in the Pacific Ocean
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At 4/16/2011 03:46 (utc) our position was 13°27.07'N 119°38.99'W