Monday morning (again), 9 June 2008

0600, 9 June 2008, 36N15 145W34 C042M S6.0 APP WND 008 8.1

Motoring with furled jib and full main. Gone 1091, 1109 to go. Went 122 Nm in the last 24 hours.

I was pleased to see that my deliberately introduced error in the last blog elicited so many responses. Got to keep you guys on your toes.

What a great day. Since we were still worried about the cutlass bearing we sort of drifted to a stop yesterday morning at about 0830 when the wind died again. A cry went up for showers (we could have gone swimming). So we rigged the salt water system and had an hour long showering session (one at a time) on the fore deck. Fantastic. Lifted everyone's spirits.

Afterwards I decided to cautiously try putting the prop in gear while running the engine to charge the batteries. It seemed to work ok, so we motored for awhile until a little breeze picked up. Maybe the noise the other day was the folding prop jammed at a funny angle.

When we quit motoring Cirrus did her usual number in these light airs. At one point we were reaching at about 6 knots in an apparent wind of 5.3

Passed the 1000 Nm point at about 1400.

I had been doing my usual number on the crew about the "optimum" track from Hawaii to SF being marked with black balls about a foot in diameter. Sure enough, today we passed one after another (some close aboard) for the entire afternoon. More myths.
This morning the color of the balls changed from black to white. Probably because we are passing the halfway point.

Just before dinner we spotted a large number of dolphins about a quarter mile away. There were a dozen at a time leaping out of the water.

At 1600 yesterday we had been underway exactly one week. At 1017 Nm. that's a 6 knot, 145 Nm./day average.

As the sun came up this morning it revealed another freighter approaching from our port quarter. Big sign on the side said "Gearbulk". We picked this one up way off in the distance because of the morning sun and calm conditions. He agreed to change course to port in order to pass well ahead of us. (Freighter whisperer.) Otherwise he was pretty terse. It seems like the ships were a lot more chatty last year. (When Lindsey was making the calls.)