Higher and higher every day, till over the mast at noon….

We are getting very close to the equator and are over halfway to the Marquesas. We expect to get there about 11 or 12 June. The wind is from the NE at 8 Knots and the sea from the NE at 3’, so it is pleasant sailing at the moment. The wind has been reasonably consistent today but it died last night from midnight till about 6am this morning. We still managed to travel 219km (136 miles) in the past 24 hours. The weather has been very hot and relatively calm for the past few days. Lisa woke up this morning all hot and uncomfortable so she immediately put her bathing suit on and got a bucket and sat in the cockpit pouring seawater over herself much to everyone’s amusement. She said it solved the problem.

There is a bird that sits on top of the mast day after day and makes a bit of a mess on the deck below, so Carl had a number of attempts to chase it off today but hasn’t succeeded. We made humus today and Andrew says he really enjoyed his sandwich of fresh bread with humus, tomato and salami. We used olive oil in the oat bread today and feel that it tastes better than the vegetable oil we have been using to date.

Another day:

All the above was yesterday. We’ve had another good day sailing with a NE wind of about 12 knots. We are heading almost due south now to get through the doldrums and over the equator, so are quite happy still having good wind. Our current position is 06 55N, 127 32W and we are managing to travel around 220 km (~140m miles) every day. We are currently travelling at 6 knots with a northerly sea of 4 feet and a 30% cloud cover so sunny again today. We expect to reach and cross the equator in the next two or three days and will probably be at about 128 to 129 Deg latitude when we do.

Our radio is working very well, and we are told we have about the strongest signal here of any of the boats in the seafarers net. Daily contacts with Andy’s dad (and his mum as well sometimes) are very reliable, and we have the opportunity to talk with Ann (Carl’s sister) and parents and his friend Dan, this coming Friday, if conditions are suitable

The refrigerator is working very well and we are really glad we stayed to solve that problem as cold water out of the frig is great in the current heat. All our food has kept really well except the avocados which have all perished. And Carl caught another tuna today, a much bigger one, about 25 lbs, so we filleted it and had seared tuna for dinner on rice cooked with pineapple juice, coconut milk, onions, peppers, and a little wasabe powder. We are eating really well and enjoying our food!. We have enough tuna for tomorrow night as well.

Words of Wisdom from the crew today:

Leslie – I made my second loaf of bread today
Lisa – Too hot for touching
Carl – Why can’t we stop to swim
Don – We are at 100 hours on the engine, time for an oil change in the Doldrums
Andy – We need to get that bloody bird off the top of the mast
Raleigh – I’ve been working on my suntan and its going quite well.

That’s about all our news, not a lot changes out here at the moment.